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j MASTER NEGATIVE NO.:

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NORMAN

ROGER

BALL

PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY IN ONTARIO
DURING THE 1860S.

INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY
OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree Master of Arts in th
University of Toronto.

CC) Norman Roger Ball, 1972.

FOREWORD

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who helped make this thesis possible I give
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD . 2

INTRODUCTION . 4

Chapter

SURFACE WELLS AND EARLY CANADIAN
petroleum EXPLOITATION . .

•

1— 1

PUMPING, DRILLING AND PREPARING

OIL WELLS . . .

III.

CREATING A MARKETABLE PRODUCT . .

109

IV.

PRODUCTS AMD USES OF PETROLEUM .

201

STORAGE OF PETROLEUM . .

250

VI.

SOURCES OF PARTS, MATERIALS, AND
EQUTPMENT .

280

CONCLUSIONS .

302

ILLUSTRATIONS . .

308

APPENDICES . .

315

BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY .

324

INTRODUCTION

As a serious academic discipline the history of
technology in Canada is in its infancy. The purpose of
this thesis is to advance and make a contribution to that
study. The role of technology has not been sufficiently
considered in interpreting Canadian history but even
when this thesis is completed that lack will remain
basically unaltered. Although there is a need for the
interpretive framework provided by the grand cosmic schemes
of scholars such as Lewis Mumford the history of technology
in Canada is not yet ready for these. It is a foolish
workman who erects the framework where there are no
* foundations for his grand edifice.

The foundation work, the digging and grubbing about
in the dirt, must be done first and this thesis is an
attempt to set one stone in solid ground. After it has
been joined by others the time will then be ripe to
formulate interpretive schemes of strength and value.

One must know what happened before presenting hypotheses
explaining why something happened and this thesis is an
attempt to supply the what happened, the narrative, to
some of the technological issues faced in the first

decade of the petroleum industry in Canada, The
material presented here might be used for all manner of
interpretive and comparative studies but such activities
are clearly outside the bounds of this thesis and one
should not expect to find them.

The oil industry in Ontario during the 1860s is a
particularly apt foundation stone upon which to build
an understanding and interpretation of the role of tech¬
nology in the development of Canada. For over a century
petroleum has played an increasingly important role in
Canadian economic and industrial development and the way
is therefore open for the study of an industry over an
extended period ot time. The petroleum industry in
Canada has not yet been properly studied and much of what
has been written is, with few exceptions, of questionable
value. Another reason why the study of the petroleum
industry, and particularly its technology, is a worth¬
while pursuit is that it is a study of the development of
an industry largely unhampered by previous traditions.
Before the oil boom there was not a petroleum industry
because petroleum was with few exceptions a non-resource.
During the 1860s petroleum was transformed into a
valuable resource.

The history of the Canadian oil fields during
the 1860s is primarily the study of how a county -
Lambton - and a country - Canada - responded to the needs
of a new industry. The oil industry is a gauge to measure
the technological sophistication of Canada and of the
ability to step outside the bounds of conventional resource
exploitation and simultaneously create and adapt to the
needs of a new industry.

Lambton county, located in Western Ontario at the
junction of Lake Huron and the St. Clair River, is the
centre of the petrochemical industry in Ontario. Almost
all of the petroleum refined and used in ’'Chemical
Valley," the part of the county given over to the petro¬
chemical industry, is from outside of Ontario. Few are
aware that Lambton county still has producing oil wells .

The oil wells of Lambton county present an historical
anomaly. The production of the field has always been
small and at present the annual production is not enough
to meet the daily refining needs of Chemical Valley. For
over one hundred and ten years the wells have appeared
to be on their last legs and as a result the financial
foundations have been shaky. Larger and more productive
North American fields, first ih Pennsylvania and then

in other places in the United States and Canada, have
always overshadowed the Lambton oil fields. However, in
spite of their small role in terms of total North
American production at any one period or over the entire
history of commercial petroleum exploitation,' the Lambton
oil fields have played a very important part in the history
of petroleum exploitation and technology in Canada. Part
of the legacy of this early development is the petrochemical
industry in Sarnia and along the St. Clair River.

During the 18 60s the petroleum in Canada was trans-^
formed from a nuisance into a valuable resource which was
the basis of a growing industry. Many problems had to be
solved before this transition could take place. The pur¬
pose of this thesis is to record .and examine some of the
technical problems and solutions related to the acquisition,
storage, and processing of Canadian oil in Canada during
the 1860s.

Prior to the 1860s petroleum had not been the basis
of a large industry and there was therefore the need to
create quickly - by adaptation or invention - the required
technology. The creation did not take place in a vacuum.
Knowledge and experience in other fields such as chemistry
and the coal tar industry helpe’d to shape the direction
of the growing petroleum industry. The geographical nature

of Lambton county was another important formative ele¬
ment in the Canadian oil industry. Although Lambton
county was served by railroads and was bounded on two
sides by water offering good transportation facilities ,
the oil fields themselves were rather inaccessible; they
were separated from railroad and water routes by virgin
forests , swamps , and roads in such poor repair as to be
of little use. Lambton county was virtually devoid of
industry when the oil boom started. However, the diffi¬
culties were not insurmountable and the oil industry grew.

Not all of the questions raised in this thesis have
been answered. However, it was not expected that they,
would be and it is hoped that this thesis will serve as .a
starting point for further research into petroleum technology.
Therefore, it is essential that information be recorded
in detail even where questions are not fully resolved. The
petroleum technology of the United States and Canada has
not been compared but the information provided in the thesis
will allow this to be done when more detailed research in
the oil technology of the United States and Canada is
carried out.

Much has been written about the petroleum industry
in the United States but most of it is from the point of
view of the economic historian. Much less has been written
about the oil industry in Canada but it falls into the
same pattern. Hopefully the result of various scholars

looking at the oil industry from different points of
view will be a more balanced literature dealing with the
pursuit and utilization of petroleum. It is conceivable
that one of the by-products of such an approach to history
will be a more perceptive awareness of technology and its
role. Much of the contemporary writing about the role of
technology in history is rather alarmist. Technology is
erroneously seen as having a life of its own independent
of human judgment and control. Technology is one of the
important factors shaping and shaped by history but it
has been widely ignored by historians . The result is that
technology has been surrounded with an aura of mystery and
powers that it does not merit.

CHAPTER I

SURFACE WELLS AND EARLY CANADIAN
PETROLEUM EXPLOITATION

In one sense all history is written backwards in
that to write it one must go back in time. But some
history is more backwards than others in that the
historian is searching for and looking mainly at that
which he sees as similar to present practice, using as
the guide to his selective processes the closeness to which
the past anticipates present. Looking at history in this
manner, particularly if to this one adds a maligned touch
of national or local pride, sends people scurrying after
'firsts’. In the case of the oil industry playing the
’first game’ means quibbling over who drilled the first-
oil well while ignoring some of the more important issues.
There is another approach to the petroleum industrv, seeing
it for what it is : a mining industrv. Then the drilling
non-drilling dichotomy appears to be less central since it
merely expresses two stages in the development of the
specialized techniques of a particular mining industry.

The petroleum industry is rarely regarded as a
mining industry but this is understandable. Petroleum
does not look, act or feel like other minerals and as a

result petroleum technology is unlike other mining
technologies. In many respects petroleum resembles
water and many elements of water well technology were
adapted to petroleum mining. But the differences between
water and oil, the differences between oil and other
minerals, tended to obscure the similarities and
petroleum was regarded as a unique substance. In the
initial flush of enthusiastic optimism and boosterism
the differences were seized upon and the similarities
unwisely pushed into the wings .

As has been the case with many minerals and mineral
deposits it is the surface finds, the readily visible,
that first attracted attention and were worked, and in
this respect petroleum in Canada West and elsewhere
resembles other minerals. In Canada West the "surface
shows" attracted the attention of and were utilized by

the native North American Indians and European settlers.

An unidentified newspaper clipping in the Smith
Collection and based on a report of July 19, 1860 .
refers to an Enniskillen farmer who knew of the
existence of oil on his property and had been using
it for 25 years. As indicated in the Bibliographic
Essay the Smith Collection is unindexed; a copy of
the clipping is in my files as "S25-19". Items from
the Smith Collection which are unidentifiable will
hereafter be referred to as Smith followed by my file
reference number, and date if known. The Smith
Collection is owned by George Smith of Sarnia and
Brights Grove, Ontario.

These shows were of two types: liquid and solid or

semi-solid. One reporter aptly described the liquid

surface shows as M little oozings of oil from the ground,

either with or without a spring of water." If no water

were present for the oil to float on small quantities

of the oil might attract attention bv its offensive

odour, but water made it easier to find since wherever

water "stood in little pools" the oil formed a "scum"

on top with characteristic rainbow hues . This oil was
easily skimmed from the surface of the water.

Not all of the oil that seeped up from the depths
found its way into streams or little puddles and it was
this oil which gave rise to another and more spectacular

1. Toronto Globe , Jan. 25 , 1861, [Hereinafter referred
to as Globe . ]

2. Toronto Leader, June 30, 1861, [Hereinafter referred
to as Leader 7T These scums should not be confused
with the oil slicks frequently referred to at
present as the result of oil tanker disasters. . The
latter are far larger and usually of heavy bunker
oils. Closer to the modern oil slicks would be

the crude and waste oil slicks on Bear and Black
Creeks which were constantly commented upon and
occasionally on fire. The oil slicks that I am
talking about are those found in quiet recesses ,
perhaps upstream of a dead branch now leading
an amphibious life, half .on shore and half in the
stream, while awaiting its return to the earth that
nourished it. They are like the little pools that I
played with as a child on hikes to the ’gas bubbles’
near Albion Falls, Hamilton.

surface show: the gum beds. Gum beds were formed

over the years as crude soaked up through the soil

and did not run off into streams. The lighter fractions

evaporated leaving a dry gummy asphalt-like or bituminous

substance on the surface of the soil and mixed with

oil-soaked earth beneath this. ''Tarry bitumen" is how
it was usually described. In Lambton there were two gum
beds which properly deserved the name. One such bed
in the first concession of Enniskillen was said to be

about 3 acres in area although accounts varv considerably.

Pioneering oil men such as Tripp and Williams first worked

1. T. Sterry Hunt, "Notes on the History of Petroleum or
Rock Oil," The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, VI
(August, 186177 248. [Hereinafter referred to as Hunt,
"Notes on Petroleum" . ]

2. Leader, June 30, 1861.

3. James Miller Williams was perhaps the first major
oil promoter in Canada. He was not one of the
founders of the International Milling and Manufacturing
Company. He appears to have gained control of the
company by 1857 and throughout the 1860s was one of
the most powerful men in the Canadian petroleum
industry .

The Tripp brothers, Charles N. and Henry , are
even more mysterious than Williams. The Tripp brothers
became involved in oil exploration and promotion
earlier than Williams but unlike Williams were not
astute businessmen and appear to have lost evervthing.
The Tripp brothers showed others where money was to
be made but did not share in the monev.

the gum beds, i.e. easily seen and gathered surface

shows. Details of early development are somewhat

lacking, but in 1855 The International Mining and

Manufacturing Company was awarded an Honourable Mention

at the Paris International Exhibition for its asphalt.

It might be assumed that this was a finished asphalt

produced from the Enniskillen gum beds but a word of

caution is necessary. No description of the material

as a finished product has been found and since it was

part of Logan’s Geological Survey Collection it might

have been unprocessed as was the 1,450 pound sample that

Thomas Mcllwraith had analysed in Hamilton for Tripp
2

in 1855. However, it is on good authority that it was in

"1857 that Mr. W. M. Williams of Hamilton, with some

associates undertook the distillation of this tarry
3

bitumen . "

Before Canadians could derive full benefit from

1. J. C. Tache , Canada at the Universal Exhibition of
18 5 5 (Toronto: John Lovell, lBlTsl , p. 372.

2. See Appendix C.

3. Hunt, "Notes on Petroleum," 248. There is a
printing error in the article referred to; it
should read "J. M." not "W. M." Williams.

their petroleum they had to quit wishing that it was

something else. Canada lacked coal. Canadians and

many others were acutely aware of this lack and in

many respects petroleum was a coal substitute. It was

found on the ground or dug from the ground and could be

burned as is or heated to produce other products .

Williams' earliest work had been with a solid or semi-

solid which he treated as a coal. When he found

petroleum naturally occuring in its free liquid state

there was a period in which he saw the liquid as a

rarer and less dependable mode of occurrence and seemed

unwilling to rely on it completely. By January, 1859

Williams was obtaining liquid petroleum from dug wells

but it was reported that he did not intend to rely 'irpon

that source of supply . . . works are in the course of

erection for treating the oil earth after a fashion

somewhat similar to that in which coal is treated." By

1. Digging shafts for oil reached its highest state of deve
lopment in Burmah . See "Petroleum in Burmah , " Atlantic
Monthly , XXII (October, 1868), 404-413.

2. For an account of a well dug by Williams perhaps as
early as 1857 see the Globe , May 4 , 1863.

3. London Free Press, Jan. 27, 1859. [Hereinafter
referred to as Free Press.]

August of 1859 at the very latest Williams was con¬
centrating his efforts on pumping liquid petroleum,

an approach which he had probably been trying for

some time. An August 1858 report mentions that "a

hole dug 8 or 10 feet in width and about the' same

depth will collect from 200 to 250 gallons a day." This

oil, according to the same report is ’'barrelled up and

sent to Hamilton to be prepared there."

Pinning one’s hopes on wells to obtain liquid.

petroleum directly from the earth rather than distilling

it from the earth represents a change in attitude which

was to have important technological consequences. With
the transition from the search for petroleum bearing
earth to liquid petroleum there is a change of technique.
One ceases digging up and carting away the earth as in
open pit mining and begins to sink shafts or wells.

It is not clear how the transition took place
but there are several possibilities. Williams has left

1. Free Press, Aug. 5, 1859. See also W. P. Fisher,

"Letter to the Editor" Journal of the Board of Arts
and Manufactures for Upper Canada , ~T TF eb . 1 8"JTll 4 6 .
iHeremafter referred to as Fiiiher, "Letter".]

2 • Free Press , Aug . 2 6 , 1858.

3. It might be added that those pursuing the ’first
driller’ have not looked at this aspect of the
search for petroleum.

no direct evidence but the newspapers were interested

in the work of Williams and other oilmen. It is

possible that in digging a hole for petroleum

Williams was only following a part of one of the

traditional methods of collecting oil in Canada

West. "A large hole would be scooped out of the soil,

which in the course of a few hours would be full of
1

fluid." One account mentions Williams digging soil
for retorting and that "in digging up the soil for
this purpose he found that the oil ran into the sides
of the hole. This led him to further digging, and
now after several attempts, all more or less success¬
ful, he has a well in full operation which supplies as

1. Free Press , Jan. 27, 1859. The description con-
tinues : "at the surface of which floated an oily
substance, a blanket or woolen cloth had then to
be thrown on to the surface of the fluid, and
the oil being uppermost, absorbed it. The oil
was then wrung out from the blanket into a vessel,
and the operation repeated until a sufficient
quantity had been obtained."

much oil as he can want.” If such was Williams’
inspiration then he modified it as surface wells were
cribbed and puddled so as not to allow oil to seep
in through the sides but only through the bottom. Cribbing
and puddling also prevented cave-ins .

Next is the accident or serendipity theory: the
classical oil find story -- looking for water and finding
oil. The London Free Press reported one such incident:

"An important discovery has just been made in the town¬
ship of Enniskillen. A short time since, a party, in
digging a well at the edge of a bed of Bitumen, struck

upon a vein of oil, which combining with it the earth,

forms the Bitumen.” The story is very plausible because

oil and water wells were constructed similarly - and it

1. Leader , June 30, 1860. Harkness believes that the
"only reason J. M. Williams didn’t drill a well at
Oil Springs in 1855 or 1857 was that it was so much
easier to bring a shovel and an axe through the swamps
of Enniskillen than to haul a boiler and engine over
the bottomless road.” This is stated in Col. Bruce
Harkness, Early Historical Record of First Oil Well in
America: The Williams Well, 0 il Springs-, Cn . p . , n.dD .
Although no publication data is given it is known that
it was published in 1958. The argument simply does not
hold up. For the little equipment that Williams would
have needed the roads, not yet destroyed by legions

of oil men, would have been more than adequate.

2. Free Press, Aug. 5, 1859.

3. Tie cons truction of water wells is dealt with in
Charles Spurgeon Buck, The Origins and Character of the
Early Architecture and Practical Arts of Ontario to
1850 (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Western
Ontario , 19 30).

was not yet clear that digging a well was the best
to get oil.

The third theory or reason why wells were dug

is less tradition or serendipity than analytical sense.

Williams or one of his employees may have felt that oil

oozed out of the bottom and sides of a hole because the

act of digging a hole created a pressure difference to

which the oil responded. Digging down was a means of-

decreasing the pressure on the oil from above thereby

allowing the oil to escape. As one reporter put it, they

found "the oil coming easier to the surface when the

weight of the earth over it is not so great."

There is a fourth alternative or theory. Esoteric
as it is petroleum is a mineral and the conventional
way to mine minerals is to dig a hole or shaft in the
ground. Shafts for retrieving liquids are called wells.

Although one may not be sure why the wells were
dug, other than to get more oil, it is known how they were
dug, constructed, and worked. The earliest contemporary
description of what might be a surface well dates from
August 1858. It is rather vague: "a hole dug 8 or 10

Globe, Jan. 25, 1861.

feet in width and about the same depth." The well

might have been straight sided and/or cribbed or just

a large scoop or trench out of the ground into which

oil seeped from sides and bottom. There is an earlier

but questionable reference to a well in Bothwell on

the banks of the Thames .

MMr. Tripp, A Canadian, sent by Mr. Williams
of London" dug a "well to a depth of some 27
feet without meeting with any special indica¬
tions of oil ... the next morning, when going
to the well to resume digging, he found it full
of oil. and water. Afterwards an attempt was
made to drive an iron pipe down in the well,
but the pipe had been driven a considerable dis¬
tance, it broke and the well was abandoned. This
well was commenced some six years ago. At present
the water in the cribbing is covered with oil." 2

This well was cribbed but one cannot be sure as to the
date of 1857 although it probably is correct.

Fortunately there are a number of wells for which
more certain data is available. However, I do not pro¬
pose to use this data to chronicle or list we 11s and
their vital statistics but rather to build a composite
picture with ranges of variation and exceptions indicated.

Surface wells were dug by hand: there is not any
evidence to even suggest the contrarv. There seems to

1. Free Press, Aug. 26, 1858. The length is not men-
tionedY the hole was probably square or close to it.

2. Globe, May 4, 1863.

be no standard surface size or configuration although

they were generally rectangular or square with the

round being rare in the early 1860s but less so by

the mid 1860s. In their issue of September 6, 1861 the

Globe gave the vital statistics for fifty Enniskillen

wells; the data is incomplete because there were about

400 wells ; but "as they resemble on another very closely

in almost every particular, it is unnecessary to give

a description of each." Information on depth is very

complete but is extremely wanting for length and width.

Surface dimensions were given for only four wells , two

square (six feet square and five feet square) one

rectangular (ten feet by eight feet) and one round

(seven in diameter) . It is therefore necessary to
look elsewhere for surface dimensions but this is to be
done after using the data regarding depth.

The - depth of a surface well or the surface portion
of a drilled, i.e. rock well, is the depth at which the
rock is reached or oil is given in such quantities as

Globe ,

Sept .

2, 1861.

Globe ,

Sept .

6, 1861.

to make further digging unnecessary or impossible.

In the Globe report the depth of surface wells varied

from 40 to 60 feet with the surface portion of drilled

wells varying from 42 to 70 feet. The arithmetical

average depth for these is 49.0 and 49.6 feet res-
3

pectively. There are other dimensioned descriptions

of surface wells. Williams’ well was thirtv feet deep

before August 5, 1859. Another early well, the Donaldson,

"was sunk ..* by Robert Dobbyn, and is eight feet wide,

twelve feet in length, and thirty-six feet deep.” In
June of 1860 a Williams’ well, described as his "principal
well", was "about fifty deep and about eight feet square;

1. Undoubtedly some digging was' halted by gas but this
seems to have been viewed as little more than, a
temporary setback. The Globe , Sept. 2, 1861, noted
that "there are two classes of wells, the rock and sur¬
face. In the former, the rock is bored through until
the oil is reached. In the latter, the well is merely
sunk in the earth until the oil appears and renders
further digging unnecessary."

The figure 70 might be regarded with some suspicion.
The two next deepest are 68 and 60 feet.

The data is based on 21 surface wells and the surface
portion of 26 bored wells, i.e. rock wells.

Free Press, Aug. 5, 1859.

5. Smith, S25-19, July 19, 18'60.

it has perpetually thirty-eight feet of oil." In

early 1861 Williams was credited with having five wells

"about 40 feet deep" , a statement in apparent agree¬
ment with the anonymous Clevelander’s description of

"large holes in the ground generally about 10 feet square,

to the depth of 30 to 50 feet." Another well is simply

described as being 53 feet deep with another description

adding that "the wells are not circular, but for the most

part nearly square." Others were described as "not 60
5 6

feet deep", "70 feet" and dug and cribbed with boards to

1. Leader , June 30, 1860.

2. Based on Charles Robb, "On the Petroleum Springs of
Western Canada," The Canadian Journal of Industry,
Science, and Art, XXXIV (July, 1861), 317 and the
report of the same lecture which was given in the Globe ,
Sept. 6, 1861 describes one of Williams’ wells as being
46 feet to the rock and 100 feet in the rock and having
been in operation for 2 years; this is not- to say that
it was bored in the rock 2 years ago but was probably

a deepened surface well of which Lambton was to have
many .

3. Globe , Feb. 15, 1861.

4. Smith , S25-48, June 22, 1861.

5. Sarnia Observer, Oct. 6, 1865. [Hereinafter referred
to as Observer . ]

6. Observer , March 1, 1866.

40 feet. The average depth of surface wells appears

to be in the range of 50 feet.

As regards cross-sectional area the task is

more difficult as there is less information and it

is rather imprecise. There are a few dimensions to be

added to those previously listed. For round wells four

and one half to five feet in diameter was common according
3

to one source while another speaks of a well six to

eight feet in diameter and overflowing. The same source

speaks of a well eight feet by twelve feet overflowing

while another who also speaks of overflowing wells regards

five feet square as common. Riving equal weight to all

1. The Canadian News , March 27, 1861, p. 102.

2 . A depth of fifty feet is ten feet more than the average

depth given by the Carbon Oil Co. in a letter of Jan.

7, 1861. See Fisher, "Letter''. The discrepancy
should not be cause for concern. The sample reflects
the state of affairs at least six months after the
Carbon Oil Co. figures were taken, a period during
which surface wells were going deeper. A figure-
much over 50 feet would put the wells into bedrock
in most parts of Enniskillen.

3. Globe , March 12, 1862.

4. Globe , July 29, 1860.

5. Smith , S 2 5 - 1 8 , July 19 , 1860 .

6. Globe, Aug. 30, 1861.

of these references the average cross-sectional area
is 52 square feet. Average storage capacity of a
surface well would then be somewhere in the range of

26,000 cubic feet or 1350 gallons, less than 35 barrels.

Digging and constructing a surface well was a

relatively easy job apart from the manual labour involved.

The job encompasses three separate processes: digging,

cribbing, and puddling. Digging was accomplised by

pick and shovel: suitable tools for "stiff clay inter-

mixed with gravel." It is clear from the report of a

"sad accident at the Oil Springs" in which four lives

were lost that in digging surface wells powder was used

to blast the rocks impeding digging.

The cribbing was to stop the walls from caving
in while the cribbing and puddling together would, in
theory, prevent any water or oil from leaving or entering

1. Calculations were based on an Imperial gallon of
277.274 cubic inches which is the legal British
definition in force between 1824 and 1878. See.
Robert E. Hardwicke , The Ollman?s Barrel (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1958), p. 16. All
calculations are based on a barrel of 40 Imperial
gallons .

2. Smith , S25-19, July 19, 1860.

Canadian News , May 19 , 1864 , p. 310. The fatal
blast was not caused by the powder but bv gas in the
well which exploded when one of the men in the well
lit his pipe.

the well through the walls. In digging a well "as

fast as it was sunk" it "was cribbed with logs put

together inside the well, in the same way that houses

are usually built." The material for the cribbing

would be any of "timber, logs, and boards." The
finished form in which the raw material, wood, was used
depended upon other technological factors : planks or
boards if a saw mill were nearby, rough logs if not.
Whether or not the well was square or circular was not
dependent solely upon the aesthetic sense of the well
digger.

The way in which the well is sunk is this, a
hole from 4^ to 5 feet in diameter is dug to
the rock in the ordinary way, the sides being
cribbed up with timber to prevent them falling
in. Hitherto square wells have been principally
made, and by taking pieces of timber, and dove¬
tailing the ends , the well sinkers have been able
to make their cribs at little cost, and with
very rough tools. But the erection of a saw mill
near the creek, has made the lumber cheap, and
cribs are now being made in the shape of large
tubs -- but without either top or bottom — which
being let down in the wells as the sinking pro¬
gresses, effectually protects the sides. 4

Globe ,

Aug . 30 , 1861 .

Smith ,

S 2 5-19 , July 19 , 1860

Globe ,

Feb. 15, 1861.

Globe ,

Mar. 12, 1862.

It should be added that iron and a blacksmith were
needed to make the hoops surrounding the tub-like
cribbing.

Between the cribbing and the walls of the exca¬
vation clay was puddled "so as to keep out the surface
1

water" and to keep the oil in. This was done using the

impervious Erie Blue Clay, "Enniskillen Blue", which

when in a rather viscous semi-fluid state would be
2

compacted.

The theory and construction of surface wells is
rather simple and straightforward and so was the opera¬
tion. Generally the wells performed . very satisfactorily
and disasters seem to have been quite rare. On occasion
surface wells would "cave in"; two of the wells in

the fifty mentioned in the Globe of September 6, 1861

were listed as having caved. Although cave-ins were
rare occurrences there is one account of such which
deserves quotation as a source not only of an amusing
incident but also of the attitudes of various oil men.
The incident started when a George R. Haven "sunk to

1. Globe, Aug. 30, 1861. By .surface water is meant
not only the water on the surface of the ground but
also that in the soil, clay and gravel, i.e. the
drift, above bedrock.

2. I have been unable to find any references to the tools
used in compacting.

Globe, Sept. 6, 1861.

the rock" i.e. dug a surface well to the rock.

The oil broke in suddenly, and in a very short
time filled the well to overflowing. As speedily
as might be, Mr. Haven made a tank capable of
holding 750 barrels, and has taken from the well
over 600 barrels. Envying his success, an enterr
prising Yankee who is called '’Colonel'’ by his
friends and acquaintances , sunk a well within a
few yards of Haven’s*, but although he went down
quite as deep, he did not lessen the flow of oil
to his neighbor’s well. Indeed he got but slight
symptoms of the much desired fluid. Greatlv to
the delight of sundry observers , the men at work
for the "Colonel” , took from the well a large
boulder, the effect of which was to cause the
cribbing' to give w ay for want of proper support,
and the hole "caved in". He followed suit, "caved
in himself" , and sold out to a Californian named
0 ’ Grady for about a third of the sum the well had
cost him. None were better pleased than the
Americans at his ill success. The considered his
practice too sharp. 1

Ideally the oil came up through the rock or clay
and gravel, gradually filling the surface well from the
bottom, not through the sides. Wells could come in
quietly but the preferred mode for the benefit of repor¬
ters and visitors was to have it burst in suddenly when
the workers were still a few feet from the rock. This
way, "with much noise and uproar of gas", it could burst

in "from the loose gravelly substance overlying the rock"

and perhaps even "run over and waste hundreds of barrels"

1 . Globe , Sept. 2 , 1861.

2. Globe, Aug. 30, 1861.

of oil. Generally surface wells came in quietly,

seeping up from the bottom as they should with lunch

time and the night hours being the preferred times.

Not all surface wells came in as expected. On

one occasion a surface well had been sunk to thirty-six

feet with plans to go further.

as the indications of oil were not, at that
depth, sufficiently encouraging, but, as the men
were proceeding with their operations , they were
startled by a loud rumbling noise like distant
thunder, apparently in the ground, within a few
inches of the shaft, and it increased to such an
extent as to cause a suspension of the work for
part of a day. Subsequently a loud report was
heard, and upon examining the well Dobbyn found
that the gas and oil had forced a passage through
a crevice in the cribbing about ten feet from the
bottom, and through this opening of about five
inches in length, by one inch, at least, in width,
the oil was flowing into the well.l

*Such a disaster was really no disaster at all and would
have been welcomed by many.

The digging of a surface well necessitated the
expenditure of considerable labour and therefore of
money but no one seemed to complain about this. Using
the average depth of 50 feet a surface well in Enniskillen
could at $3.00 per foot be dug and finished for $150.00.
pive years later surface wells were dug for "an expenditure

Smith, S25-29, July 19, 1860. This well had clearly
not yet been puddled and might not have been cribbed
completely at the time of the incident referred to.

While none of the oil men or

of only $100 to $150. M
commentators seemed to be concerned about the cost of
digging a surface well they did worry when the well
stopped giving oil or gave an oil-water combination too
heavily weighted towards water; there were ways around
these problems. The .latter problem is to be considered
first.

The surface well was conductor, storage area, and, in
one sense, processing area. The oil came up through the
well and was held there until removed naturallv or artifi¬
cially. The oil and water could be separated in the well
and removed separately at will. Should the well relieve
itself of its oil by overflowing then the main problem
was that of slowing the flow or finding containers for .
the oil. When this happened there was no means of con¬
trol and it is fortunate that in most surface wells the
oil level did not rise to the top of the well and pumping,
a controlled • process , was necessary in order to remove
the oil from the well. The details of the pumping operation
depended on factors such as the depth of the well and the oil

Canadian News, Sept. 27, 1866, p. 194. By 1866 surface
wells were far from the rule but the fact that they were
being made at the time serves to emphasize their rela¬
tive cheapness for this was a time in which the article
mentioned in this note claimed that "owing to the cheap¬
ness of oil" many who owned wells were "luxuriating" in
a "prolonged holiday" and that those wishing wells did
not want to invest much capital. Market conditions
were so bad that many were not working their wells and the
optimists sinking wells were doing so as cheaply as
possible .

in the well, the relative proportions of oil and water

and their rates of entry, as well as the equipment

available and whether or not one could afford to use it.

Any one who has worked with pumps will realize

that the depth from which the liquid is to be pumped will

often determine the type of pump to be used. The oil

men of Enniskillen were no exception.

The kind of pumps used vary according to the depth
of the well. Where the oil is near the surface any
sort of a pump will do. When more than 33 1/3 feet,
force pumps, or lifting pumps have to be employed. 1

Curiously I have been unable to find any descriptions

of the actual pump mechanisms and will therefore give only

a brief description of what the equipment was probably like.

For shallow wells be they water or oil so long as less

than about thirty feet the so-called common pump would be

adequate. This is merely a suction pump and is similar

in principle and in construction to the force pump to be

described with only one basic change viz. that the valves

in the common pump are near the surface level rather than

deep in the well. Deeper wells, whether surface or rock,

require a force or lifting pump the principle of which may

be discussed without a detailed description of the pumps

used in the oil regions of Canada West in the 1860s. No

Globe , Sept . 2 ,

1861.

matter what the design there are three essential parts:

pump barrel, foot valve, and head valve. See Figure

one. The barrel is that into which the valves fit.

The fit must be tight enough to prevent leakage but

loose enough to allow motion of the head valve without

undue strain and friction lest the cups rub and wear

excessively and consequently leak or cease operating

completely. In the oil fields the barrel might, in a

rock well, be the well casing itself, if sufficiently

smooth, although a more satisfactory arrangement would

be if as Greene suggests the "last section of pipe

casing ... be of heavy drawn brass tubing to make a •

proper barrel." At the lower end of the pump barrel
is the foot valve, the body of which remains stationary
and must have a water and oil tight fit into the pump
barrel. The head or upper valve also fits in the pump
barrel but is movable, being set in motion by the pump
rods or cable. Figure one shows ball valves but flap
or clack valves would work. The cups (see diagram)
are made of leather, the expansion due to oil and water
wetting helping to ensure a good seal.

1. Arthur M. Greene, Jr., Pumping Machinery: A Treatise

on the History, Design, Construction and 0 peration

of Various Forms of Pumps (2nd ed.; New York: John

Wiley 6 Sons , 1919), p. 155.

The operation is very simple as is the equipment
itself. On the upstroke the ball in the foot valve will
p,e raised because a partial vacuum will be created be¬
tween the foot valve and the upward moving head valve
unit. The greater pressure of the oil and/or- water below
the ball of the foot valve causes the ball in the foot
valve to rise which in turn allows the oil and/or water
to flow upwards into the chamber between the two valve
assemblies. On the down stroke the ball of the foot
valve will be forced down preventing downward egress of
oil and/or water while at the same time the downward
movement of the head valve with resultant increase in
chamber pressure will cause the ball in the head valve to
rise with the result that the liquids will be forced up
through the head valve. With the termination of the
downstroke and the commencement of the upstroke, the ball
of the head valve will be drawn down and the ball of the
foot valve up; the entire sequence just described would
then be repeated. It should be evident that were the'
bottom (foot) valve to remain open at all times the
pump would not work: this happened and there was a
patented device designed to overcome the problem. It
was claimed in a letter of Aug.- 20 , 1866 accompanying
the patent application that "it has been tried and

found good."

The pump used is the common or sucking pump: and
in most wells the pressure of the gas in the wells
upon the valves overcomes their might and thus
keeps them open -- when not raised by the pump thus
preventing the working of the pump and the pressure
of the spring upon the valve is required to over- •
come the pressure of the gas so that the valve shall
be open only when raised by the pump . . . the strength
of the spring can be proportioned to the pressure of
the gas in different wells .... It consists in the
application of the spring power upon the valve for
the purpose of keeping the valve closed except when
raised and opened by the pump. 2

The above was simply a sprial spring placed in the

ppening marked "A" in Figure one. It is not known how

well or how widely the invention was used. After the

patent had been issued there are no more complaints of

gas forcing pumping to come to a halt. On November 9,

1865 the Canadian News announced that in a few davs the

Campbell well with the gas valve arrangement for pumping

will in a few days astonish the most imperturable of oil

men by its yield” but it is not known if this referred to

1. Canada Patent Office, Ottawa. Unpublished letter

of Aug, 20 , 1866 , from Harper and Ebbels , Solicitors,
Petrolia, to Board of Agriculture.

2. Canada Patent number 2133, John Henry Eakins , of the
Township of Enniskillen, in the County of Lambton,
for ”A new and useful improvement in the VALVES used
in pumping oil wells." Ottawa, 30th October, 1866.

3. Canadian News, Nov. 9, 1865, p. 292.

Eakins ' invention. Nor is it known if the lack of

complaints indicate that the problem was solved as

there were only three complaints about the ravages of

gas in the sources consulted.

Very often there would be two pumps per surface

well because a well giving oil without water was a rare

occurrence indeed. Where two pumps were used it was

because the well was being used as the site for oil and

water separation. "Two pumps are employed. The oil

naturally rises to the top of the water in the well. By

means of a force pump the water is taken from underneath

the oil; and by means of a common lifting pump the oil is

taken from the top of the water and deposited in a large

tank close by." Sometimes both pumps would of necessity
be force pumps as in one of the Williams' wells which had
"in it perpetually thirty-eight feet of oil. This well

Canadian News , May 10, 1862, p. 310.

Canadian News , Nov. 9, 1865, p. 311. This article
is from the Bothwell Reporter, the editor of which
was particularly perturbed. "We are still labouring
under the effects of mismanagement .... For instance,
Pope's or McRoberts ' , which was to have commenced
pumping some weeks ago, is doing little or nothing
owing to the gas , which keeps the valve of the
pump continually raised. Now as we know that pumps
can be got which would obviate this difficulty,
it is a marvel to us that one of those is not pro¬
duced at once."

Our third complaint concerns a well on Manitoulin
Island and is found in Canadian New s , Jan. 11 , 1866 ,

p . 22 .

Globe, Sept. 12, 1861.

is worked by two pumps , one of which reaches to the

bottom of the well to draw off the water which oozes

in from the sides, the other reaches within two feet

from the bottom, and is used for the purpose of pumping

the oil into a still on the ground in which it receives

its first refining process." Other wells contained "a
good deal of water" as was the case with a 50 foot sur¬
face well in which the oil was sufficiently close to the
top as to be "easily pumped out bv a small hand pumpM

with the force being used to keep the water level down.

Controlling the water was important and became increasingly

important as the proportion of water rose making it

"necessary to use steam pumps to drain the wells."

Steam as a means of removing oil from wells has ,
with the exception of one source, always meant using
steam as a source of motive power for mechanical pumps.
There was however one patent granted in Canada during the
1860s to use steam in a different manner. The patent
was granted to William Parson Junior for his "Oil Ejector".
Steam was forced under pressure through a pipe to the
bottom of the well where the steam is to come into contact

1. Leader , June 30, 1860.

2. Globe , Sept. 6, 18 61.

3. Charles Robb, "On the Petroleum Springs of Western
Canada," The Canadian Journal of Industry, Sc ien ce, and

Art, XXXIV (July, 1861 > 316. [Hereinafter referred to
as~Robb, "Petroleum Springs".

with the oil and "the whole mass of the oil is violently

agitated and broken up into infinitessimally (sic.) small

portions , destroying its specific gravity or the hydrostatic

pressure of the column . . . . " Parson’s method was to have

the effect of "rendering the particles of oil and water •

for the time very buoyant" and they would be then forced to '

rise. The patent could also be operated using air power

rather than steam. Parson claimed that his

apparatus does away with the use of pumps to
raise the oil, the heavy labour, the continual
breakages, the expenses for repairs, and the
delays incident thereto; and another advantage
which I believe this process possesses, is, the
increased temperature of the well by the use of
steam, which expands the gases and melts the
paraffin out of the crevices of the rocks ,
obviating the difficulty heretofore experienced
by the closing up of the bottom of the well by
the paraffine ....1

A somewhat similar proposal only this one using

water was patented by Otto Rotton of Kingston. The drill

hole was to be packed tightly so as to be air and gas

tight and only two pipes were to be extended. The longer

of the two was to have water under pressure forced through

it thereby causing the lighter oil to rise up the shorter

pipe which would be raised and lowered so as to keep it

in the oil and not in the water.

1. Canada Patent Number 1765.

2. Canada Patent Number 1947.

I simply do not know if either of the patents
discussed above were ever put into use in the oil fields.
Rotton did like patenting ideas related to the oil indus¬
try although on his patent applications he listed him¬
self as Doctor of Medicine arid I have been unable to
link him with any oil companies. Parson, on the other
hand was of the family owning the largest refinery in
Toronto but I strongly suspect that his mode of re¬
covering oil would have produced a crude petroleum and
water emulsion that might have been difficult to deal
with .

Difficulty in getting oil instead of oil and water
was a general characteristic of Enniskillen and Bothwell,
the severity varying from well to well. It is doubtful
if any wells gave oil with no water for anything but the
first shows. Throughout the oil regions of Canada West
oil and water were mixed with water frequently predomi¬
nating. The Kelly Wells, notorious for the difficulty
of working them, are simply reported as having "such

quantities of water as to render the wells exceedingly

difficult in working.” The two Williams' wells from
which 100,000 gallons had been drawn in eighteen months

Robb, "Petroleum Springs”, p. 318.

by common hand pumps gave more water than oil and

were therefore being converted to steam pumping to

see if this would improve the situation. The same

problem existed in rock wells and throughout the 1860s

there are references to the fact that the water cannot
2

be kept down or that the only way to keep it down is

to adopt bigger pumps and engines .

If the water in surface wells was not pumped the
oil would either cease to flow or overflow. In wells
such as that of Williams’ in which equilibrium was reached
with approximately 38 feet of liquid in the well failure
to remove the water would mean an ever-increasing pro¬
portion of water leaving less room for oil. In some wells
if a pump did not keep the water level down then it would

rise to such a height as to drive the "oil entirelv out
4

of the well" , an unfortunate position as much of this
overflowing oil would be lost.

In the examples discussed to this point the oil and
water have been separated, at least to some extent, in

1. Fisher, "Letter", p. 46.

Canadian

News ,

Dec .

22 ,

1864 ,

P-

388 .

Canadian

News ,

Aug.

1865 ,

134.

4 . Globe, Jan . 25, 1861.

the well but such, although common practice with

surface wells, was not without exception. One well

owner did his separating above ground. "Oil and

water are pumped out together into a circular tank.

The oil is then run off into a tank sunk into the
1

ground." At another well there were "large square

wooden tanks, provided with a partition, so that as

the liquid rises in one compartment to the level of

the partition, the lighter oil flows over and is re-

ceived free from water in the second compartment."

The proposals of Rotton and Parson were rather
complex but were not intended primarily for surface
wells. As was the case with digging surface wells the
methods of pumping them were rather simple. In spite
of its simplicity pumping surface wells was an essential
and sometimes troublesome operation. As deeper wells
were drilled the problems of drilling and driving pumps
increased and the solutions to these problems became
more varied.

1. Globe , Sept. 6, 1861.

2. "The Oil Wells of Enniskillen," Journal of
the Board of Arts and Manufactures for Upper

Canada, I (June , 1861), 145.

CHAPTER II

PUMPING, DRILLING AND PREPARING

OIL WELLS

Great variety in techniques was one of the
characteristics of the Lambton County oil industry in
the 1860s. One of the major reasons for the great
variety is that the oilmen had to learn and to develop
the best techniques for the inudstry as a whole and the
area in particular. Scarcity of capital, the remoteness
of the oil-fields and variations in geological structure
all conspired to increase rather than decrease variety
and the need for innovations. The techniques of drillin
and driving pumps give a good example of the variety
found in the Lambton oil-fields. The techniques we re
crude but effective and as such represent excellent res¬
ponses to conditions at the time.

Wells were pumped by hand, horse, spring pole, and
steam. Throughout the period under consideration none
of these methods were entirely superseded although very
quickly the horse and steam power came to predominate.

Hand pumping was apparently the first to be used,
a method capable of considerable production. Earlv in
1861 the hand pumps of two wells were replaced by steam

•

pumps. The, pumps and the pumpers deserved a rest

after having produced 100,000 gallons, i.e. 2,500

barrels in eighteen months. The hand pump as second
best is also seen in a lecture given by William
Dentors , lecturer of geology from Detroit. Dentors
believed that with steam the wells giving four to five-
barrels per day by hand would increase production ten¬
fold. In the same lecture he mentioned one well with

a "wooden pump" producing at the rate of twenty barrels
2

per day. However, it should be noted that Dentors was
referring to the Underhill well, a well that had been
overflowing and would have produced a few barrels even
without a pump.

The spring pole method of pumping was a develop¬
ment from the spring pole method of drilling or vice-
versa; the spring pole is discussed elsewhere. Spring
pole pumping as with spring pole drilling had a rather
short-lived peak of popularity but did not completely
die out. One finds occasional references to wells such
as that of "Mr. Mitchell from Paris" who had a surface

1. The same information is to be found in Smith , S25-42,
March, 1861, and Fisher, "Letter", p. 46.

2. Free Press , March 8, 18 61.

well and was "pumping it with spring pole power, 10

" 1

barrels at 70 feet." This was in 1866.

Hand and spring pole pumping may be seen as temporary

or second best measures utilized when nothing else could

be used either because of financial considerations or lack

of material at any price. Such was not the case with

horse and steam power. The use of horsepower presents

several curious and rather difficult problems. I have not

found any description or pictures of a horsepower rig known

to be used for pumping oil wells nor is there sufficient

data to draw a clear picture of their popularity and use.

The Giohe report of September 6, 1861, potentially

a source of good information, is extremely disappointing

with respect to horsepower pumping rigs. One well is

listed as having a hand pump and a force pump with another

having a six horsepower steam engine; for the others no

information is given or it is of the "yielding" , "pumping" ,

i.e. vague, variety. Another report of the same year is

1. Observer , Mar. 1, 1866.

2. There was one patent issued in Canada during the 1860s
that is relevant to the problem. The patentee was
Charles Lee Merrill of London who on July 10, 1868 was
granted Canada Patent Number 2668 for "A new and useful
Machine for boring wells , to be called or known as
'Merrill’s Horse-Power Rock and Earth Drill.'" It is a
conventional horse-power rig modified so as to cause a
cable attached to a string of tools to be raised and then
allowed to fall freely.

3. Globe, Sept. 6, 1861.

more helpful. "Pumping is mainly done with one horse

treading machines , 4 steam engines are employed and

some managed by hand." The County of Lambton Gazetteer

and Genera], Business Directory, for 1864-65 , credits

Oil Springs with having 300 oil wells "some of which are

pumped by steam, the rest by horsepower." Again there
is the impression that horsepower is the main means of
pumping in the early 1860s, but there are no descriptions
of the rigs. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is probable
that there is no description because horsepower units
were so common for pumping oil, water and for other
applications that they did not merit newspaper coverage.
The oil would have been pumped by the then common geared
rigs around which the horse walked endlessly, the
monotony broken only by the need to step over the shaft
each revolution.

Although hand, spring pole, and horsepower pumping
played roles of varying degrees of importance it was

1. Observer , Aug. 9, 1861.

2. R. R. Sutherland, A. R. Sutherland, and John
Sutherland, County of Lambton Gazetteer, and
General Business Directory, for 1864-65 (Ingersoll,
Cl W. : Sutherland Brothers, 1864), p. 100. [Here¬
inafter referred to as Lambton Gazetteer: 1864-

65] .

steam power that was most important during the period
under consideration. One of the biggest problems pre¬
sented by steam engines and a major obstacle to their
introduction was the difficulty of getting them from
harbour or railroad station to well site. One answer
was winter transportation when the mud was frozen and
covered with snow. During the winter of 1860-61 steam
engines in small numbers were sledded into the oil
field. Although it is not known how many were brought
in it was not enough. Again the evidence is often con¬
tradictory and always incomplete and inadequate. In
January, 1861, the Carbon Oil Co. of J. M. Williams

was going to try steam pumping for two of their wells.

As early as January 1861 the Globe stated that "in many

of the wells ... a steam pump has been necessary to

keep the water from driving the oil entirely out of the
2

well." But it is not known how many engines were doing
the work and for how many wells . An engine could pump
a well and then be moved because continuous pumping was
not needed in many instances. Steam engines were far
from the rule and in March a William Dentors , lecturer in

1. Fisher, "Letter", p. 46.

2. Globe, Jan. 25, 1861.

geology, Detroit, was speaking about three of the

major wells in Lamb ton and recommending that at

Kelly’s and Adam’s wells ’’proper appliances of pumps

and steam engines” be instituted. At Underhill’s well

he found a man "greasy as a tallow ketch" drawing up

oil with a wooden pump. The following month it was

reported that "there were two steam engines at work in

the diggings, pumping out the oil; they do a good
2

business." It seems doubtful that there were only two

engines. It is possible that there were other steam

engines for other purposes and that each engine pumped

many wells by moving from well to well.

By May of 1861 steam engines brought in during

the winter "were being used extensively to pump up
3

the oil." In June, 1861, a report speaks of "some wells

worked by steam engines" with no hint given as to how

1. Free Press , March 8, 1861. Kelly’s, Adam’s and
Underbill's wells were amongst the biggest operations
in Lambton at the time but not as big as Williams’.

2. Free Press , April 6, 1861.

3. Observer , May 31, 1861.

Globe, Aug. 30, 1861.

many some is. At the Wyoming station there were "steam

engines from the Brantford and Buffalo shops." When

the Globe published two important articles giving details ,
albeit incomplete, about a number of wells, surface and
rock, the total number of steam engines referred to for
pumping was four with three for drilling and two on the
way for drilling. Steam engines were also necessary for
refineries but not necessarily for distilleries, a dis¬
tinction which many reporters failed to draw. However
incomplete the data may seem, it is clear that by earlv
1861 steam was accepted as the preferred power source and
one whose use was to increase. The situation was aptly
described in 1865, although the description would probably

also apply two or three years earlier, "no one thinks of

touching rock below without a steam engine."

In studying the development of wells to this point
the well has been viewed primarily as a conductor, that
is as a means of getting to the oil or getting it to

1. Free Press, June 25, 1861.

2. Globe, Sept. 6, 1861. Globe , Sept. 12, 1861.

Canadian News, Aug. 24, 1865, p. 119.

come closer to the surface. Secondarily the well
has been seen as a means of storing oil and separating
it from water. In doing this it has been necessary to
examine some of the problems faced by the constructer
of surface wells, it is inaccurate to call him a 'driller,
and how these were met. There are two problems that
have not yet been looked at, namely what to do when the
flow is so small as to be financially unremunerative or
when it stops . altogether .

The question of what to do when the well ceases

to be unremunerative is exceedingly complex involving

the erratic price fluctuations of oil as well as the

problem of lowering unit production costs in order that

one not "be taken under" by price cuts. Many well owners

simply stored and/or stopped pumping when prices were

too low. At one time or another all but a very few

put their faith in price-fixing agreements of various

types. All of these combinations in restraint of

trade, rings or associations as they were commonly

called, had but a temporary success. The marketing of

1. One of the major problems plaguing the oilmen

in Canada, particularly the producers of crude,
was their failure to see that their interests
would best be served by cooperation and conser¬
vation rather than by cut-throat competition and
over production. For an introduction to this
problem see Phelps , Fairbank .

petroleum is an area in need of thorough research
but it is not to be considered in this thesis except
in a very marginal manner.

When the oil from surface wells stopped coming
or was not coming fast enough they had to be abandoned,
as many were, or made to give more. The way to make
the surface well give more was to go deeper, through
the rock where pick and shovel were of little or no
use but where the drill was.

Drilling represents not only a technological act
but also a conceptual view since the oil well, at least
the drilled portion, is now purely conductor. If the
well is to serve solely as a conductor then it is very
uneconomical to dig a large surface well which
necessitates the removal of approximately 26,000 cubic
feet of earth , cribbing and puddling when one could
merely bore a hole to bedrock and continue on through.
Very early the dug surface well was supplemented by
other methods of reaching bedrock.

As has been shown, the surface well was to go to

Qr close to bedrock, a task involving considerable labour

and costing about $3.00 per linear foot. The dug surface
well is a finished unit in itself although it may also

Based on data found in the Globe , Aug. 30 , 1861.

serve as a starting point for drilling. However,

before looking at the means whereby this was done

other means of reaching bedrock should be examined.

One should not expect to find continuity in method but

a break at bedrock. The way to go through bedrock is

percussion drilling to pulverize the rock but above

bedrock the clay and drift would merely be compacted

rather than pulverized by percussion drilling. The

material above bedrock needed to be dug out by one

means or another. The simplest methods have been

examined and it is other means that must now be examined.

The year of the spouters and flowing wells in

Enniskillen was 1862 and in the description of one of

these wells there is some rather interesting material.

The usual practice in sinking for oil has been to
put down a shaft, 6 to 8 feet square, to the rock
and to crib this with timber or plank, and then
commence drilling the rock with a 2^ or 3 inch
drill. In this case a hole 8 inches in diameter
was sunk by means of an auger to the rock, into 2
which a wooden box, 6 inches square, was driven.

1. Boulders encountered in the clay would be .either
removed or drilled through with a percussion drill.

One way to deal with clay is to use a spudding bit,
but I have no evidence to indicate that it was used.

2. Smith, S27-2 5 , March, 1862 . The Globe, March 12 , 1862 ,
describes the same well: "The well is 283 feet deep.

No surface well was sunk, but in its place a hole about
8 inches in diameter was bored by means of an auger to
the rock, a distance of 48 feet. Into this .bore a
wooden pipe, 6 inches square was driven."

Auguring to bedrock was unusual, but it was not new.

Here, as with percussion drilling, there are close ties

between the search for oil and the search for water. In
the early autumn of 1858 preparation was under way to
begin drilling artesian wells in the neighbourhood of
Sarnia, an area "ill-supplied with water." A Mr. Brown
of Maine had

taken a contract by which he binds himself to
procure a good and sufficient augur of 150 feet
in length, and 3 inch bore, in joints of 15
feet, and all the iron work required for a gin
for working the said augur in about three weeks’
time . 2

Whether or not Mr. Brown fulfilled his contract remains
to be seen, but two years later similar equipment was
being used in the pursuit of oil on Hillier's farm on
Black Creek (Oil Springs). A depth of 57 feet was reached
with an augur "which was seven inches in diameter" before

1. There is not a good history of water well sinking
technology that I am aware of. The engineering
literature of the 1850s and early 1860s suggests
that sophisticated equipment for drilling large
bore wells several thousand feet deep was being
used in Europe, particularly in France. I suspect
very strongly that there is a close connection
between water and oil well technology in North
America and elsewhere but have not pursued the
matter.

2. Globe , Oct. 21, 1858.

they "struck a vein of gas" which made it necessary

to discontinue work for some time.

It is not known whether or not the bore hole was
piped (cased) or left as bored, but if it were not piped

it would probably start to cave in soon after completion.

A later report leaves no doubt as to what is done as
regards piping.

For rock wells they frequently sink a well like
a surface well and then drill, but more frequently
the soil is bored out with a large augur until the
rock is reached, 40 to 70 feet. Then piping, like
pump logs , is put in and driven down snug on the
rock . 3

It should be noted that the author of the above says that
auguring is used "more frequently1 2' than digging for surface

1. Globe, Nov. 16, 1860. When an attempt was made to
begin drilling, a 25 pound drill was supposedly
thrown from the bore a distance of 100 feet.

2. During the 1860s the terms piping, casing and
tubing were used interchangeably. The term casing
should refer to the material used to line the bore
hole. Piping or tubing is inserted into the un¬
lined bore hole or inside the casing and serves

to conduct oil to the surface. The head and foot
valves of the pump would be inside the piping or
tubing.

Globe, Aug. 30, 1861.

wells, whereas an earlier reference describes it as
not the usual method and another source states that
"all wells in operation here have been dug: the surface
wells until oil has been found; the rock wells until

the rock has been reached and the boring is commenced."

It is not possible to say just how popular auguring
to bedrock was in the 1860s. The confused and indistinct
vocabulary of many a reporter renders it extremely diffi¬
cult to know what is happening. Witness another part of
the same report which states that all of the wells are

dug and then mentions that two augur holes were bored

to 42 and 41 feet. The report is not without merit as
it gives some insight into the problems faced by the
augurers .

... an augur hole was bored by Messrs . Monnahan
and Liddell, to a depth of 42 feet. Water was
struck and the hole filled. Three feet from it
another hole was bored. A depth of 41 feet was
attained when a large boulder stopped further
operations until a steel drill was procured.

But not a drop of water was met with — not even

Smith ,

S2 7-2 5 , March ,

Globe ,

Sept . 2 , 1861.

3 •

Globe ,

Sept . 2 , 1861.

sufficient to supply the little necessary
to the working of the augur. 1

The steel drill referred to would have been a per¬
cussion drill of the type used for penetrating bedrock.

The diameter of the augurs , although frequently not

given, when mentioned, varies from seven inches to

"several feet in diameter". It is difficult to imagine

why such a large augur would have been used when the

normal size seems to have been "an augur which bores

around and scoops out a seven or eight inch hole." A
clue as to a possible reason comes to four years later

1. Globe , Sept. 2, 1861. Although no well is mentioned
in connection with the claim it is stated that "One
old driller claimed the top rock was so shattered

in one well that they could not keep the water in the
hole to drill." Arthur B. Johnston, Recollections of
Oil Drilling at Oil Springs Ontario (Tillsonburg
Ont.: Harvey F. Johnston, 1938), p . 14. [Hereinafter
referred to as Johnston, Recollections . ]

2. Canadian News , June 19, 1861. The augur mentioned
was said to be used for exploratory purposes pre- •
paratory to digging, curbing, and puddling surface
wells. 1 have seen no other articles in which an
augur is said to be used for this purpose and am not
clear as to why this procedure would be followed as
once oil were found it would seem to be a waste of
effort to then dig a surface well. This well was the
work of R. Faulkner of Zone Township and the article
claims that he was a very careful and methodical
worker. I have never seen his name mentioned at any
other time during my research.

3. Canadian News , Feb. 27, 1861, p. 70. The augur
was used in Sombra and went to at least 57 feet.

Canadian News, Aug. 24, 1865, p. 119.

from an account of a well at Bothwell.

The tower of this derrick was not yet completed)

. nor , indeed, was the house. But a temporary
windlass had been put up and the workmen were
boring the surface soils with a verv wide and
heavy auger, weighing 250 pounds, which was keyed
into the stem. The stem was connected by means
of joints and could be extended to any length.

There were two lips to the auger, one designed
for cutting and the other for lifting .... The
surface hole they were digging was 12 inches in
diameter, the usual diameter being 4^ inches. I
inquired the reason of this, and the reply was that
at a given depth the auger would come in contact
with a stratum composed chiefly of large boulders,
and it was necessary either to bore through these,
aided by an iron piping to steady the operation and
keep the earth from falling across the auger-way, or
to raise 16 boulders and cast them out at the top of
the well. This last was considered the most easy and
practicable. Hence the surface hole was enlarged to
admit of the ejection of the boulders from below . . .
the core or boring (solid) of the well was two feet
and a half. The machinery was of the rudest kind,
but effective enough. By means of the borer they
raised every time nearly a yard of clay, and before
nightfall they had gone down some sixty feet below
the surface. As soon as they struck the rock they
intended to use the small bore, and continue to
use it until they found oil. This is the general
practice of the diggers, although some of them pre¬
fer and use the four-and-a-half inch hole from the
beginning to the end of the operation, boring ...
clean through the boulders . 1

1865, p. 103. "Stone Hooks
of surface” wells are one of
but not illustrated in a
Supply Co., Petrolia, Ontario
catalogue for which the

Canadian News , Aug. 17,
for lifting stones out
the items listed for sale
catalogue of the Oil Well
(n.p., n.d.), p. 17. The

title page and other pages are missing has no publi¬
cation data. Murray Bradley, President of the Oil
Well Supply Company believes that it was published
in the 1890s. [Hereinafter referred to as Oil Well
Supply]. The account quoted from the Canadian News is

' 1 • _ _ _ u .1 ^ A A - it! -no -Ml'S ” ll P -i r-i cr •

h hl incorrect in one detail as the ”4 1 inOTTes'
?he usual size of rock drills not augurs.

The Bothwell and Enniskillen oil fields differed

considerably in the material overlying the rock. At

Enniskillen it was mainly clay with some gravel, sand,

and rocks or boulders with a total depth of about fifty

feet. At Bothwell one usually had to penetrate at least

three sometimes four times the. fifty feet of Enniskillen

and although rocks and boulders were less frequent they

were not totally absent. The biggest problem at Bothwell

and one also encountered in Enniskillen was strata of

"quicksand” which rendered "it all but impossible to dig

a large well hole with pick and shovel."

Although water flooding was serious in both areas

it was worse in Bothwell. An article in 1863 identified

the major natural obstacles at Bothwell as "quicksand

and boulders", the fact that the wells were "liable to

be flooded with water" and the depths necessary before

reaching bedrock. This revelation should have surprised
no one. The conditions at Bothwell made it impossible
or impractical to use the method used early in Enniskillen:
digging and curbing to bedrock. Bothwell was more a centre
for innovative practice than Enniskillen.

1. Canadian News, Aug. 24, 1865, p. 119.

2. Canadian News , April 16, 1863, pp . 249-250.

Varying geological structure above bedrock and

the inexperience of the oilmen who were learning to

live from and with the oil made for great variety in

technique during the early 1860s. An ingenious method

of reaching bedrock was practiced by a Mr. Fowle who

was sinking a well on the creek flats near Petrolia.

Mn. Fowle is driving iron tubes in sections 10
feet long, connecting them with a heavy wrought'
iron collar. These tubes are an inch in thick¬
ness and 6 and 3/4 inches in diameter. A small
steam engine of about 7 horsepower is used for
driving. The principle used is the same as pile
driving, except that the hammer is of wood instead
of iron, and only 1,200 pounds weight. Mr. Fowle
told me he could drive a section of 10 feet in an
hour and a half. He expects 5 lengths to reach the
rock, when he will bore the core out of the tube . . .

The method might have been similar to what Tripp had

in mind in 1857 when he dug to 27 feet and got oil and

water but not bedrock and so attempted another method to

go deeper.

Afterwards an attempt was made to drive an iron
pipe down in the. well, but when the pipe had been
driven a considerable distance, it broke and the
well was abandoned. This well was commenced some
six years ago . 2

It is quite possible that what they had in mind was a
method similar to that used by Mr. Fowle. That they had

1. Globe , June 25, 1861.

2. Globe , May 4 , 1863.

a steam -engine to do the driving is not improbable
as Bothwell, on the banks of the navigable Thames,
did not present the transportation problems of
Enniskillen. Williams and Tripp did not succeed be¬
cause the pipe bent which is what would happen when
a rock was hit; neither a pipe nor an auger were
equipped for going through rock. The previously
mentioned augerer for whom things were not augering
well at all should be kept in mind. "A 'depth of 41

feet was attained when a large boulder stopped further

operations until a steel drill was procured.” In

Enniskillen meeting boulders and rocks and gravel in

the drift would be a relatively frequent occurrence.

When driving pipe down, hitting a rock would be serious

if not disastrous as the pipe would be bent, closed,

driven off course or some combination of these. With¬
drawal would be difficult if not impossible. It is for

1. Globe , Sept. 2, 1861.

2 . Perforated pipes with a pointed end were driven
into the earth in this fashion for water wells but
this would not work for oil wells penetrating bed¬
rock as the idea was to use the pipe driven down
as a guide to drill through into bedrock.

these reasons that this method was probably used
more successfully on a regular basis in Bothwell
where conditions were more favourable and it is with
reference to the Bothwell oil field that the earliest
reference to this mode of penetrating the earth is found.
"Dr. Seymour and Co. have driven a pipe to the

rock." No more information is given other than the

usual happy announcement that "the prospects are more

encouraging than they were at Pennsylvania." The basic

method seems to have come to stav as it is referred to

in 1862, in spite of trouble from boulders. The

following year, 1863, brought the first evidence of

modification of the system and the hint that all was not

well. It was being used in conjunction with a ’normal’

surface well. " ... after the well is sunk generally

to the depth of about fifty feet, an iron pipe, like a

street water pipe, must be driven by machinerv down

till the rock is reached."

The same article also introduced two other inno¬
vative systems. One was as well" known as "Knight and
Pope ’ s"

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

21 , 1860 , p. 164.

Canadian

News ,

June

5 , 1862 , p. 361.

Canadian

News ,

Dec .

31, 1863, p. 426.

This well has been commenced on a new plan, viz. ,
boring through the earth with a large auger and
sinking a wooden pipe tipped with iron. The Wooden
pipe is very cheap, only a few cents a foot, while
iron is $3 a foot; and if the wood will serve the
purpose, a great saving will be effected. The first
hole bored by the auger caved in before the pipe was
inserted. Another hole has been bored and the pipe
put in a short way. Mr. Knight, who has devised the
new plan, is an intelligent American mechanic and is
confident of ultimate success.

The other new plan is one for which the information is

less complete.

Mr. Win. McMillan, formerly of Glasgow, Scotland,
and also a merchant in Toronto, has a farm on the
south side of the river, and, knowing that boring
for coal was extensively pursued in Scotland to a
great depth, came to the conclusion that it would
be well for him to despatch an order to Scotland
for miners, tools, and piping. They were forwarded
accordingly, came duly to hand, and were set to work ....
Their operations were commenced about two weeks ago
and have proved a wonderful success . They are al¬
ready down 116 feet, and are said to be on the rock
with good indications of oil. This is the quickest
and most satisfactory boring operation yet attempted.

The Scotchmen do not drive the pipe by blows -- they
press it down; but, as I have not yet seen them at
work, I shall not attempt to describe the operation.

They say this work is mere child's play compared to
what they have been accustomed to in Scotland. It
may be worth while for some of their brothers in the
old country to note these facts. There is plenty of
work for any number of men here in boring for oil
and salt.

It is now only fair to ask how successful these new
methods were. Initial response was very favourable for
the latter.

Mr. McMillan, from Scotland, has two wells going
down and is about commencing another two ....

His operators are out from the "auld country,”
and they have left our native well sinkers in the
rear by occupying but days where weeks before were
employed in sinking. Not only this, but they will
sink a well with less expense than is required to
furnish the tools for the original plan -- besides
being so much simpler and more successful. It has
made a grand revolution in the business by doing
away with the cast-iron pipe, heavy ropes, engines,
and many other costly materials that frightened men
of limited capital; but they may all come in now,
for no person will deny that it is the first money¬
making business in America. 1

An important point is that cast-iron pipe was not used;

an informed guess is that the pipe being sunk was ”what
was called Scotch casing, similar to heavy stovepipe,

soldered together." I have found nothing further to

add to the technical information about this process

other than by 1865 it was a method of the past. The

"artesian borers from the old country" eventually

’/'found ... a good show of oil, and developed it to

about two barrels a day. But the hole was too small

and the piping broke, and the result was that they

finally abandoned it."

Canadian

News , Jan .

28,

1864 ,

P-

54.

Johnston

, Recollections

, p. 4

•

Canadian

News, Aug.

17,

1865 ,

P-

103. There is some

evidence to suggest that McMillan’s success mav have
been more substantial than 2 barrels per dav , viz. "40
to 50 barrels per day" but one cannot be sure that it is
the same McMillan and/or the same well as in the article
cited there is no reference to the method of sinking and
considerable time had elapsed since McMillan initiated
his ’unsuccessful’ method. See Canadian News , Dec. 22,
18645 P- 387‘

There is little to be gained by lingering over

the ’failure’ of McMillan. The innovators at Knight

and Pope’s well fared even worse than McMillan.

... this wooden pipe is not the thing. It is
sure to collapse .... The greatest sufferers
here from using wooden pipe are Messrs. Pope
and Knight, Hall, Cook, and Thayer. 1

They may have been suffering but they did not intend

to do so for long. Although the complaint had been

made that "it takes months before artesian pipes can

be obtained from Philadelphia, as that is the only place

where they are made” Messrs. Pope and Co. soon had the

well "in which the wooden pipe had collapsed ... in full

blast with artesian pipe."

By 1864 the experiments in Bothwell had clearly

indicated the best method of reaching bedrock in that

area and the procedure was more or less standardized.

At first attempts were made to get to the rock
in the regular method, but this was found to be
impossible; the depth required, together with the
quicksands, rendered it impracticable. A very
great deal of money was spent in vain attempts
at "cribbing" ere the effort was given up. A verv
successful method has been adopted in its place.

A large hole is first bored in the ground to a dis¬
tance of a few feet, say 12 or 15, and 10 inches in

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

z J-
CN

1864 ,

P-

326 .

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

24,

1864 ,

P-

326 .

3‘.

Canadian

News ,

Dec .

1864 ,

P-

387.

diameter. Into it an iron pipe, like a heavy
stove-pipe, is forced. The bore is then pro¬
ceeded with, but at a reduced diameter equal to
that of the interior of the pipe. When a depth
of a few more feet has been attained, a smaller
pipe is slipped down the interior of the first
pipe into the hole, and so until the rock is reached.

By the time that is done the diameter of the bore
will have decreased to an average of bh inches. 1

In the description quoted immediately above it is
mentioned that ''wooden piping is frequently used instead
of iron" but if used it could not, on account of its
thickness, be used in the method described/ It is sus¬
pected that as was often the case the "special correspondent"
made a hurried trip in which he absorbed both the old and
the new and was not always quite sure which was which. The
correspondents were not oilmen but were in fact 'tourists'
and complete consistency should not be expected. The same
correspondent's comments on the source of power should
be read with scepticism.

The surface bore is put down by hand power, and
very rough machinery, involving a great waste of
labour, is used. Some of the men thus employed
are Cornish or Scotch miners , who refuse to adopt
any "new-fangled" plans of doing business. The
exercise of a little ingenuity and the use of steam
would save them an immense deal of trouble. 2

The connection between coal exploration and mining

in Britain and oil exploration and production in Canada

1. Canadian News , May 18 , 1865 , p. 314.

2. Canadian News , May 18, 1865, p. 314.

West was also noted in Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manu¬
factures , and Mines , where it was noted that "the

methods employed . . . for boring oil-wells are usually

of a very simple character, and do not differ very much

from those used in this country for trial-borings in

coal measures." However there was one system based on

coal mining practice that was not as simple as the more

conventional system of boring.

A modification of Fauvelle’s system, having hollow
rods with a continuous discharge of the detritus,
was in use at Oil Springs, Canada West, last
summer. The boring-bit has a hollow stem, the
cutting edges being formed by three stout radiating
pieces of steel. In the angle formed by these
pieces, and their junction with the stem-brass,
valves are inserted which allow the detritus to
enter the rod through which it rises, and is dis¬
charged in jets at every fall of the cutter. The
lifting of the borer is effected by toothed levers,
similar to those of a safety-catch used in colleries ,
which fall together by their own weight, and take
hold of the rod at the end of the stroke; and are
released by tappets attached to the boring-frame or
derrick, striking against their outer ends when the
rod is at the top of its stroke. 1

It is not known how successful the method was although

at first, as with most innovations, it was praised.

A new kind of drill is now in successful operation,
employed by Mr. Bruce and the Hartford Companv.

The novelty consists in that, instead of using a
sand pump, the drill is kept going all the time,

Robert Hunt, ed. , Ure ! s Dictionary of Arts, Manu¬
factures, and Mines (6th ed . : London : Longmans ,
Green, and Co., 1867), Vol. Ill, p. 405.

and the same pump, or rather apparatus that answers
the same purpose, is attached to the drill, and thus
drilling and pumping are carried on at the same time.

■ Should oil be struck it will also be conveyed to the
surface and saved as fast as the vein supplies it, ^
a great convenience and improvement on the old plan.

Very quickly the system got into trouble and after hearing

of some trouble it is heard of no more.

Mr. Bruce is making very good head-way in very
hard rock; he is now about 200 feet in the rock,
but, like others, he, too, has had an attack of
break-down, which detained his operations about
ten days. 2

I strongly suspect that Mr. Bruce was using the plan
mentioned in Ure's Dictionary but whatever the method it
disappeared .

Numerous commentators have recorded that once
bedrock was reached the process was the same in Bothwell
and Enniskillen. This is an important point as bedrock
represents a watershed in drilling technique. Before
examining the nature of this watershed the methods of
reaching bedrock in Enniskillen should be examined.
Enniskillen and Bothwell shared many techniques. The
utilization and abandonment of wooden casing in
Bothwell has been discussed; it was tried in Enniskillen
at Oil Springs. The main function of the casing extending.

1. Canadian News, Aug. 10, 1865, p. 88. From the Oil
Springs Chronicle, no date given.

2. Canadian News, Sept. 21, 1865, p.

Oil Springs Chronicle, Aug. 19.

187. From the

6 6

to bedrock, be it wooden or metal, is basically

twofold. One function is purely structural: to

prevent the wells of the surface bore hole from

caving in. The other function is to keep debris and

water out of the rock bore. The casing had to be

strong and had to be put in carefully. Failure to

bed the casing properly on bedrock could result in

considerable lost time. One well in the Bothwell

region had quicksand come in "under the tubing, which

was not properly upon the rock, and filled it, and they

are now engaged in cleaning out for another start."
Needless to say a new pump was also the order of the day.

Wooden tubing, more properly casing, was tried
in Enniskillen as well as in Bothwell with more per¬
sistence but apparently with no better results. A
report of August, 1861, states that after reaching

bedrock with an auger "piping, like pump logs, is put

in and driven down snug on the rock." Another account,
this one from 1862, speaks of an 8 inch diameter auger
bore to the rock and "into the bore a wooden pipe, 6

1. Canadian News , Jan. 28, 1864, p. 54.

Globe, Aug. 30, 1861.

inches square was driven." Two separate developments
suggest that the wooden casing was little or no more
satisfactory in Enniskillen than in Bothwell. The
first is that iron pipe seems to have been used in
most of the wells. The second is an admission that
wooden pipe had not been satisfactory but the defect was
going to be rectified by Mr. Lockhart’s system of wooden
casing.

The destruction of iron piping in the wells ,
through action of acids , has been to many ad¬
venturers a loss of money, leading almost to loss
of hope, loss of heart, loss of faith in petreolic
success. Iron one inch thick has been corroded and
perforated by acids in three months. Mr. Lockhart
found that the circular tubes of wood, sent down
the hole behind the drill to protect the iron piping,
went to pieces in the course of two or three, or at
most four months. They were composed of narrow
pieces with iron nails and hoops to hold them to¬
gether. The metal tube was within this wood casing,
and on failure of the casing was speedily corroded
and destroyed. Now he has contrived a different kind
of wooden tube. Pieces of pine or other soft timber,
free of knots, are cut to lengths of fifteen feet.

Each is rounded on the outside to a half circle. It
is hollowed in the inside to a half circle five
inches diameter, thickness of the bodv five-eighths
of an inch. Two of these halves placed together form
a whole circle. One-half overlaps the other at the
end by three feet. A copper band holds them together.
The next section fits into the space left by the
overlapping of the last piece. It is in turn over¬
lapped by its fellow. The copper band again binds
them. Thus they are put down into the drill hole

Globe , March 25 , 1862 .

■

to protect the iron tubing within which work
the drill tools, subsequently the pump, from
the action of acids in the rock; or, where there
is loose earth or side springs of water, to keep
these out of the shaft. The first section, as it
is about to disappear, is hooped to a second, and
upon that is placed a third, and so on in succession,
until this wooden casing is far down as may be
desirable to send it. This simple contrivance with
the absence of iron nails is Mr. Lockhart's latest
step in advance of those who surround him. A
carpenter is seen in the shop belonging to the
company 5 behind the treating-house, fashioning these
sections of wood tubing. He makes six sections in
a day.l

Lockhart's system did not find permanent favour but does
serve as an example of some of the thinking directed to¬
wards a problem which ha.s yet to be solved. Lambton
crude is particularly corrosive and is very hard on
pipe in wells and in refineries. In spite of its short¬
comings, iron was the best of the available evils and
was the predominant pipe material. The wood did not
serve as an oil conductor in Bothwell or Enniskillen.

The wooden tubing or casing protected the piping which
extended into the bedrock and conducted oil thence. It '
is the penetration of this bedrock that is to be examined
before turning to the casing below bedrock.

New techniques were necessary as soon as bedrock
was reached. Drilling was the only way to penetrate
bedrock. Not all wells were started with drilling in mind;

Canadian News , June 14 , 1866 , p. 375 .

some dug surface wells which had ceased to give oil,

were abandoned and then given a new lease on life by
1

drilling. For other types of wells and for many of the
dug surface wells, drilling was part of the original plan..

The first step in drilling, irrespective of the
power source, was to provide for the drilling tools in
order that they get started straight and hopefully con¬
tinue that way. If bedrock had been reached by an auger

then casing would be "driven down snug on the rock" to

se^ve as a guide for drilling as well as a means of

sealing the upper part of the well. For wells which had

been dug to the rock, preparation for deep drilling would

take place by boring a hole "say 2^ or 3 inches in diameter,

Gr whatever bore one intended to use in the rock, into the

rock for about a dozen feet. An iron pipe would then be

"driven into the hole in the same manner as piles are

driven into the earth." The drill would then be
introduced .

The drill was the lowermost of a number of pieces
of equipment known as a string of tools. A complete string
of tools would consist of drill bit, auger or drill stem,

1. See Globe Mar. 12 , 1862 and Globe , Sept. 12, 1861.

2. Globe , Aug. 30 , 1861.

3. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

jars, sinker bar, and sucker rods and/or cable. The
earliest method of drilling practiced in Canada West
was that of kicking down a well with a spring pole rig.

The drill is suspended by a short rope from a
beam overhead. In order to continue boring, it
is necessary to get a reciprocating motion, and
the object has been attained in this way. An up¬
right post is erected by the side of each well.

Across the top of this post is placed a tapering
spar, the thin end of which just crosses the well,
the thick end being fastened to a tree . . or if
none ... can be found, "a weight is attached to the
end; but more generally, care having been taken to
select a spar heavy enough for the purpose, no
additional weight is required. It is now evident
that if the end next the well be bent, the spar will
right itself the moment the pressure is removed and
that the desired motion may thus be obtained.
Accordingly the rope attached to the drill is
fastened at a distance of about 3 feet from the end
of the pole. From the extreme end hang ropes with
stirrups, into which the workmen place their feet,
and by alternately pressing and removing the pressure,
the drill is lifted the distance of 6 , 8 or 10 inches
as the case may be. Day after day the workmen thus
"treadle" until the oil is reached. 1

The above description, with one modification, may

be said to fit all of the spring pole rigs used. Some

were not equipped with ropes terminating in stirrups

but rather the rope led to a pivoted platform which

would then be alternately stepped on and off; this is
what should be called a ’treadle’ with which one would
treadle a well whereas with the stirrups one kicked

1. Globe , Mar. 12, 1862.

2. See plate III.

down a well. As with much that is described in this
thesis it is crudely elegant. Spring pole drilling was
not an oddity out of its element but an appropriate
response to a given set of conditions.

In much that has been written about spring pole

drilling and pumping it is customary to say that this is

what the Chinese also did and then to drop the matter there
which is to drop the story at the very point .that it should
start. The spring pole was used in Canada as a power
source when others were not available or were uneconomical.
It was economically and easily constructed from readily
available natural materials as well as being simple even
if not pleasant to operate. These characteristics made
it an ideal power source although some might be tempted
to derisively label it a technologically unsophisticated
power source. The fact that a power source used in Canada
was utilized much earlier in China and Europe serves only
to illustrate the direct and pragmatic approach utilizing
limited technological resources that characterizes much
of the history of technology in developing areas in Canada,

For an introduction to this type of writing see for
example any of the following.

Globe , Sept. 7, 1861.

The Canadian Native Oil Company, The Canadian Native
Its Story , Its Uses, and Its Profits

a Visit to the

[Hereinafter

Oil Wells

With

(London: Ashby

referred to as Canadian
Victor Ross, Petroleum jn Carra^^-tTOTorrta
1917) , pp . 31 -"32 .

Some

6 Co. , 1862)'

Native, Oil]

Oil:
Account of

-Surrtham Press

particularly during the nineteenth century.

Spring pole drilling or pumping required consi¬
derable human labour and well operators soon began
to look for alternate power sources . It is undoubtedly
a reference to kicking down or treadling a well that

mentions "a gang of 8 or 10 men . . . busily boring 2
2

wells", a considerable expenditure of manpower. The

deeper the well the more men would be needed, a good

reason for switching to steam: "each 100 feet requires

an additional man to work the drill. After a depth of

300 feet has been attained, a steam engine is generally
3

employed." Much rock drilling was started with a spring
pole but the figure of 300 feet is an extreme depth
at which to start using steam. More representative is

1. For an introduction to the use of the spring pole
as a power source and its applications see Robert

S. Woodbury, History of the Lathe to 1850 (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1964), pp . 34-44, and
Bertrand Gille, "Machines," in Charles Singer, et. al.,
ed., A History of Technology, Vol. II: The Mediterranean
Civilizations and the Middle Ages (London: Oxford
University Press, 1967), pp . 643-645. Dr. Loris Russell
of the Royal Museum informs me that spring poles were
used with pit saws in Upper Canada in the early
nineteenth century.

2. Smith , S25-48, June 22, 1861.

3. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

probably a figure closer to the "42 feet in the

rock" that Sweet and Co. reached before deciding

to wait for the arrival of an eight h.p. steam

engine for deeper drilling.

Early 1861 was the time of testing for steam
and rock drilling. In January the big news was
rock drilling -- "three rock drillings which would be

worked as soon as engines can be procured to pump them.

This was a new approach in the "probing and torturing"
of the earth of Enniskillen. A report of January 12,
1861 speaks of only three wells having been drilled in
the rock and these at depths of forty to fifty feet
in the rock. As was the case with so many wells which
had "not yet got to pumping," the "indications" were
such as to see them as "the best wells in Canada."
However, after the customary show of optimism, the
uncertainty is shown in the grimly factual statement
that "they will soon be pumping and that will tell

1. Globe , Sept. 6, 1861.

2. Globe, Jan. 25, 1861.

Robb, "Petroleum Springs", 316.

the story." As late as March 29, 1861 it was

reported that there were still only three wells bored

in the rock but that more were soon to come, one by

a Mr. Fichett of Rochester who was presently at home

getting tools for the job.

Rock drilling vindicated itself and soon became
standard practice for new wells as well as for
resurrecting abandoned surface wells and those no
longer yielding in paying qualities . Coincident with
the growth of rock drilling was the arrival and acce¬
lerated rate of arrival of steam engines. The "steam

engines brought in during the winter" of 1860-61 and
afterwards were quickly put to work in drilling,
pumping, sawing wood and running refineries. The roads
used to bring the steam engines into the oil fields
were disgraceful: the steam engines were often cantankerous
and hard to repair, but 1861 saw them established as an
essential and integral part of the oil industry.

1. Globe, Feb. 15, 1861. Although not published . until
Feb”. 15, the article was written on Jan. 12. I
believe these wells to be those of Williams, Pile,
and Dickson 5 Vaughan. See Globe , Jan. 25 , 1861.

2. Globe , Mar. 29 , 18 61.

Observer , May 31, 1861, based on extracts from
the Guelph Advertiser.

The introduction and regular utilization of steam
as a major power source is an important benchmark in the
maturation of the Canadian oil industry. Steam was an
agent of stability, regularity and rationality in an
industry rather lacking in these qualities. However, many
outsiders were unaware of the importance of steam. Spring
poles were far more picturesque and beginning in 1862 with
the first gusher the flowing wells received a dispropor¬
tionately large amount of news coverage. The existence
of a handful of spouters warped the perspective of many.

Early in 1863 the flowing wells stopped flowing and many
.felt that the end of the oil industry in Canada was at hand.
Calmer and more rational heads, heads more acquainted with
the industry as a whole rather than as a newsworthy spectacle,
saw the cessation of the flow differently.

For our own part, we do not regard the stoppage
of the flowing wells as any indication of an
exhaustion of the supply, but merely as an evidence
of the exhaustion of the power which forces the oil
to the surface. 1

The answer was simple. All that was needed was a new
source of power and steam was that source. The steam
engine became even more firmly entrenched with the end
of the spouters and was not to be displaced until the

1. Oil Springs Chronicle, Jan. 22, 1863, as quoted in

Victor Lauriston. "Deep Well in Oil Springs Area

Advocated When Gusfep Failed and Confidence -Waned in
Field", an unidentifiable newspaper article 5 Smith, S29-2.

7 G

end of the century. These engines were not magnificent

showpieces but rather modest working engines usually in

the range of six to eight horsepower, a figure which is
representative of the first few years of the 1860s.

During the second half of the decade the power of the
average engine was two or three times that of its pre¬
decessors .

The flowing wells and spring pole drilling

obscured the importance of the steam engine just as

the j ack-of -all-trades wildcatter overshadowed the more

competent specialist who was a driller and nothing else.

Perhaps it is more romantic to think of wildcatters who

scraped together a few dollars, leased some land, kicked

a well down, struck ’ile', treadled it up and perhaps
even distilled it before selling it but as the 1860s wore
on these were increasingly rare although they did not
disappear. Many wells were drilled by owners but the
well driller was a specialist. The driller had to deal
with many problems but most were within the narrow con¬
fines of his trade.

"Though most of the owners of the oil wells , both

1. Globe , Sept. 12, 1861 and Globe , Sept. 6, 1861.

The term 'ile' was frequently used by Canadian
newspapers .

at Petrolia and Black Creek, have sunk them with their

own hands, yet others will contract to do so." Such

was the situation in March 1862 and yet even earlier

something akin to the specialist appears. Tripp dug

at least one well for Williams in 1857 and a man named

Dobbyn dug the Underhill surface well and yet I do not
feel that we have here specialists but rather the work

of labourers who would do any number of jobs. The

first hint of a free lance specialist with a steam engine

comes in April of 1861. "There were two steam engines

at work in the diggings, pumping out the oil; thev do a

good business." Whether these same engines were turning
to the business of drilling is not known but four months
later contracts were being given to dig wells. A report
not of the unusual but of the apparently commonplace is
that

. . . the slow progress of drilling is carried on
by foot, horse-power or steam engine, sinking
from a few inches to perhaps ten feet per dav .

This drilling is done at $2.50 per foot. 5

1. Globe , Mar. 12, 1862.

2* Globe , May 4 , 1863.

3 . Smith, S25-19, July 19, 1860.

4. Free Press , April 6, 1861.

5. Globe, Aug. 30, 1861. In the same report it is said
that "surface wells are dug and finished at three

dollars per foot."

The next mcmth the following report appeared.

No piping is employed. The hole is made in the
rock by means of drills , varying in weight from
three to four hundred pounds . Four men are
required to each well .... The wells are
generally sunk by contract. Two dollars per foot
for all under one hundred feet; two dollars and a
quarter for every foot in excess. 1

The price reported for March 1862, a price given by the

reporters as the "average price”, is ”for the first

hundred feet ... $2.00 per foot , . for the second hundred

$3.00 per foot and for the third $4.00” with a distance

of 3h to 4 feet general!/ made in a day;” These seem

to be prices for kicking down or treadling a well as

"each 100 feet requires an additional man to work the

drill. After a depth of 300 feet has been attained, a

steam engine is generally employed.” A quotation from

the previous month gives the expense of drilling as "first

100 feet, $1.50 per foot; every additional 25 feet, 25£

extra." Another contractor offered his services at

$2.00 per foot for the first 500 feet and $3.00 per foot

for the next 500 feet. Using these various price quo¬
tations for a 350 foot well a range of drilling prices
is obtained. At $3.00 per foot for surface and $2.50 per

Globe ,

Sept .

1861.

Globe ,

Mar .

12,

1862 .

Leader

, Feb .

, 1862.

Globe ,

J une

1865 .

foot for rock, assuming 50 feet of surface well, the
well contract would cost $900. The next contractor
would receive $762.50. The driller identified by a
reporter as "average” would earn $900 for 300 feet and
if his rate increased at the same rate as prior to
300 feet the total cost would be $1150. The last driller,
the one with the most complex pricing scheme, would charge
$775.00.

By 1869 there were at least ten men in Petrolia

who regarded themselves as drillers by occupation.

The well driller was really a specialist at three tasks --
drilling, casing, and fishing -- each requiring its
own skills and equipment. Drilling and fishing were the
most difficult and fishing was the most vexing.

In spring pole drilling the required reciprocating
motion was achieved by depressing the spring pole in
order that the string of tools would fall freely and then
be raised as the spring pole straightened itself. As
the hole went deeper more rope or cable would be played
out. Rope would not be played out with everv stroke
but only with every inch or two of penetration. The
reason for this may be seen quite easily. Consider a

Smith, S21-26 , July, 1869 .

ca.se in which the stroke at the spring pole is ten
inches. In actual operation the drill should fall
less than ten inches because it should hit the rock
before the end of free fall is reached. Therefore the
rope might be set so that before the start of fall the
drill is seven inches from the rock thereby allowing
almost 3 inches of penetration before adjustment of
the rope or cable. The actual figures would depend on
the driller’s skill as he kept in mind that the drill
must hit rock before the end of free fall. With the
pole depressed and the drill in the rock there should
pe some slack to help snap or jerk the drill free, that
is to say that the string of tools is started on its
upward journey by a pole with upward velocity and there¬
fore kinetic as well as potential energy, rather than a
depressed spring pole with zero velocity, potential but
not kinetic energy, connected by a taut rope to a
heavy string of tools imbedded in rock.

Drillers wanted to make the steam engine do the
work of the men kicking the well down i.e. induce free
fall in the string of tools and the work of the spring

pole i.e. raise the string of tools. The steam engine
was connected to the string of tools via a crank, pit¬
man arm, and walking beam.

The string of tools consisted of several elements.
Lowermost on the string of tools is the "drilling bit."

In the catalogue, circa 1895, of the Oil Well Supply
Company, Petrolia. , Ontario, drilling bits vary in size

from 3h to 12 inches across the cutting surface with

weight varying 40 to 150 pounds. The bit Would be
threaded onto the end of a sinker bar, a long iron bar
whose purpose was to add to the weight of the string
of tools as well as helping to keep the string going
straight. The sinker bar and drill were two separate
units rather than one so that they would be easier to
handle, particularly when the drill needed sharpening.
However, such was not always the case as Arthur Johnston
notes :

1. It should be noted that theoretically one could

work with a spring pole rig as described here: .spring
pole, rope and drill, the latter weighing approxi¬
mately 400 pounds. Based on descriptions of spring
pole rigs the above is all that was used but I sus¬
pect that it consisted of more, namely "jars" and a
sinker bar attached to the drill which would weigh
less than 400 pounds. A lighter drill would be much
easier to sharpen as even the most heroic smith might
have trouble in wrestling with a 400 pound drill that
he wanted to heat and sharpen by hand.

Oil Well Supply, p. 20.

Some of the spring-pole tools were bars of steel
sharpened at the ends with no joints; when the
bit points had to be dressed, the drillers
shouldered them and carried them to the shop.

I have seen some of these tools. 1

Two descriptions leave little doubt that drills of the

type mentioned by Johnston were found in Lambton during

the early 1860s.

The cutting portion is of steel, shaped like a
common chisel, welded to a round bar of iron, nearly
as large in diameter as the iron pipe into which
it is placed and generally weighing from 200 to 300
pounds . 2

Another drill, thrown from its hole by gas, was "a

piece of iron lh inches in diameter and 8 feet long."
Drills as described above would have been far more
cumbersome and awkward than the detachable drill bits
over which they offered no advantage other than perhaps
ease of construction and there is no reason to believe

1. Johnston, Recollections , p. 4.

2. Globe , Mar. 12 , 1862 . I do not know whether a

cutting edge shaped like a common chisel would be
shaped like that of a wood chisel • . ~x°r that of

a chisel for cutting metal ^>- ^>although the latter

is the only one that seems reasonable in view of the
nature of the job. The weld would be a blacksmith's
forge weld. The truly hard up driller was one who
could not afford to have his drill bit sharpened,
see Leader , Jan. 27, 1862.

3. Globe, Nov. 16, 1860.

that the detachable bit was not used almost exclusively.

The drills varied in size with the lh inch drill

mentioned above being the smallest referred to. The

only uniformity of drill size during the early and mid-

1860s is not one of actual size, but of trend i.e. a trend

towards larger sizes. By 1865 the 4 to 4^ inch rock

1 '

drill is spoken of as the norm. In that same year holes

admitting only a 2 inch pump were regarded as "unfor-

tunately . . . not sufficient" in diameter. As the year
was drawing to a close a correspondent of the Detroit
Advertiser admitted that in spite of "provincial dulness ,
the oil regions of Canada West are becoming widelv known
as among the most prolific on the continent." He was
not blinded by their accomplishments from seeing that
there was room for improvement and was going to give
the provincials the benefit of his wisdom. After acknow¬
ledging the wisdom of the provincials in no longer using
the "two and a half or three-inch drill" he added that
4a well, to be successful, must be drilled from five
to eight inches in diameter, furnished with a corresponding

1. Canadian News , May 18 , 1865 , p. 314.

Canadian

News ,

Aug.

17,

1865 ,

103.

Canadian

News ,

Aug.

24,

1865 ,

P-

119.

Canadian

News ,

Aug.

31,

1865 ,

P-

134.

pipe and pump.” His advice was not taken and the
4^2 inch drill and pipe remained the rule although
larger pipe was used on occasion.

It seems that most of the drills had a straight
chisel-shaped cutting edge but there is record of one
experimental cutting edge. I have been unable to
determine how well this drill was received but its
existence and the rationale behind it should be
recorded.

The drills most commonly used for piercing the
rocks are made of flat pieces of steel of the
diameter the hole is required to be. An inven¬
tor from St. Catharines had introduced a drill
in the shape of an S by which, as is easily seen,
a larger cutting surface is obtained. It has been
used to bore the St. Catharine’s artesian wells
to a depth of 800 feet, and does its work much
more rapidly than those of the ordinary kind . 2

Alternating with the drill bit as bottom element
on the string of tools was the sand pump or sand sucker,
a very necessary tool because drilling would be alter¬
nated with debris removal.

When, after boring for a given time, the men
think that so much rock has been loosened as to
render it necessary to clear out the hole, the
drill is wound up to the top by means of a
windlass and the sand pump lowered. This pump

1. Canadian News , Dec. 21, 1865, p. 391.

2. Globe, Sept. 6, 1861.

is merely an iron tube with a valve opening
inward at the bottom. When let down into the
bore 5 the valve is forced open by coming into
contact with the powdered rock, which gets to
the inside. As soon as it is raised the con¬
tents of the tube pressing on the valve closes
it, and so imprison themselves within. 1

This type of sand pump or sand sucker could then be

emptied merely by turning it upside down and shaking

or by unscrewing the valve assembly from the tube or

stem of the pump.

Moving up the string of tools from the drill bit,
assuming a detachable bit, one would expect to find
the drill stem and then the jars. Jars resembled two
elongated chain links and were designed to give the
string of tools some ’play’. There is no doubt in my
mind that jars were used during the 1860s and yet I
have found no reference to them at all until the 1870s.
This lack of reference to jars, should not be surprising
when one considers that there are very few references
at all to the various elements of the string of tools --
that curious assemblage of mysterious parts spent most
of its life in the ground away from the eyes itinerant
correspondents and was so familiar to the residents as

Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

to need no' written description. Screwed to the upper
end of the jars one might find another iron bar similar
to that to which the bit would be attached or one
might find that which is regarded by many as being
characteristically Canadian": ash sucker rods. Again ,
no mention of sucker rods in the early Canadian oil
literature but there is the next best thing to it -- -an
unfortunate accident in Goderich.

Sucker rods are merely slender white ash boring

rods. White ash is used because of its straight grain

and strength. In 1896 Sir Boverton Redwood described

them. "The rods are about 37 feet in length and are

fitted with iron scr ew joints, by which they are

connected together.” The diameter of the rods was

given as ’’barely 2 inches." Goderich was only one of
the many Ontario centres at which the oil fever struck
but unlike the fate of many such ventures a drv hole
was not their reward. Brine was their reward, rich
brine on which a thriving salt industry was built
using oil drilling techniques.

At the Prince Well in Goderich the "parting of a

1. Sir Boverton Redwood, Petroleum (London: Charles
Griffin £ Company, 1896 ) , Vol . I, p. 178. [Here¬
inafter referred to as Redwood, Petroleum. ]

perfectly new rope" in 1868 led to a six week delay

in drilling as it was the cause of ’’precipitating the

drill and follower (weighing 3000 lbs.), 500 feet of

drill poles, and 200 feet of rope, to the bottom of
1

the well." Drill poles are also known as sucker rods.

It is important to note that both cable or rope and

sucker rods were used although the casual visitor to

the operating well would have seen only the cable .

Reports such as one in 1865 mentioning "cable" must
not be interpreted as meaning that sucker rods were
not used as it is very likely that they were present
but just not visible. By the 1870s the use of sucker
rods was regarded as characteristically Canadian but
no evidence has been found to validate such a claim.

Incomplete as it may seem little more can be
said as to what constituted the string of tools in the
1860s. The one point to be added merely poses an
unanswered question. Much of the information about
petroleum comes not out of an intrinsic interest in
petroleum but because as a generator of and accomplice
in so many accidents it made good copy. After

1. Canadian News, Sept. 17, 1868, p. 180.

Canadian News , May 25, 1865, p. 326.

chronicling a fire the Oil Springs Chronicle des¬
cribed its origins .

As is customary, a small fire had been kindled
near by the workmen for the purpose of heating
their cement which they use for more securely
fastening the drill tools together, and the
atmosphere being impregnated with gas a slight
explosion, similar to that of gunpowder uncon¬
fined, took place, its effects communicating to
the oil near by, when what has been described
followed. This occurrence, with another of its
kind which took place some months ago and which
we mentioned at the time, and then cautioned
against a repetition of it, should impress upon
the minds of all the importance of carefulness
and provision against such catastrophes . 1

It would seem very logical that the cement was being

used to prevent the threaded connections between

sucker rods from becoming unthreaded or disengaged, an

event which would have disastrous results. The

sucker rod connections in my possession which

definitely date from 1865 show a very poor design

which would easily work loose as the male and female

connections are square rather than tapered. Redwood

describes them as conical, the same conical shape

that is evident in connecting pieces in the Oil Well

Supply Catalogue. The conical threaded fitting is
harder to make than the square but would make a union

1. Canadian News, Oct. 9, 1862, p. 235.

2. Redwood, Petroleum, I, 278.

3. Oil Well Supply, pp . 22-23.

less likely to part. Further material, when un¬
covered, will indicate when the design change took
place and if it was related to the use of the cement
mentioned .

The men who worked with drilling tools had a

job that few would envy. Well sites were generally

dirty, greasy, and malodorous. The work was heavv,

continuous, noisy, and repetitious. It was the type

of work that is liable to exhaust and to lull men into

carelessness and complacency -- dangerous habits in

a job where surprises might be fatal.

A set of tools, weighing 1,000 lbs., were
lifted completely up and thrown some dis¬
tance from the pipe by the force with which
the gas comes up . 1

Besides drilling the driller had two other
major tasks: casing and fishing. Although the terms
tubing and casing are sometimes used rather indis¬
criminately they are not identical. When both are
used casing is the larger of the two and serves to
reinforce the bore walls and keep water and debris
out. Tubing houses the pump itself and is the pipe
through which the oil is pumped. Casing wells was
not a universal practice in Ontario wells even by

Canadian. News , Jan.

3 , 1867 , p . 7 .

the 1890s'. For instance, the Oil Well Supply
Company, Petrolia, was advertising a packer for an

uncased well, i.e. "any well that will not cave in."

Where no casing was required the driller had only to

insert the pipe containing the pump, the pipe through

which the oil would be piped to the surface. If the

well had been drilled properly inserting casing and/or

tubing was no real problem’ except that it might be a

long wait for it to arrive and when it came there was

always the chance that it would not fit.

The Reid and Smith wells which were to have
been pumped this week are thrown back, in
the one case owing to the well being too small
for the tube and in the other owing to the
tube being too large for the well. 4

If a driller were lucky his problems might be as

minor as tubing which "had been put in in a hurried

manner, causing ten feet of clay to accumulate at the

bottom of the well" , a simple matter easily "remedied

by the sand pump." Some problems were more serious, one

1. Oil Well Supply, p. 34.

2. Sometimes a well would give satisfactorily without
being cased but would eventually become choked with
dirt whereupon it would be necessary to clean, case
and re-tube the well. Such a well is cited in

Canadian News , Aug. 29, 1867, p. 136.

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

, 1864 , p .

324.

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

1865 , p .

311.

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

1865, p .

312.

of the most serious being the collapse of the pipe
1

in the well. Collapsed casing or tubing meant that a
difficult decision had to be made: "go fishing" or aban¬
don the well.

Although all cased and/or tubed wells were

united by certain elements there was no ’standard

practice’ in Ontario wells during the 1860s. One of

the reasons for the lack of ’standard practice’ was the

scarcity of proper equipment. But the scarcity of

equipment and the variations in terrain and geological

conditions were not the major factors. The main reason

is that during the 1860s the oilmen were searching and

exploring for the methods most suited to their needs.

They were trying to find or develop the best method

or methods to sink and construct an oil well so that it

was more than a financially unremunerative "monument

of enterprise in the shape of a hole in the ground."

In all rock wells some type of tubing or casing

served as a guide for the drilling equipment or string
3

of tools. A newspaper reporter described such an

1. Canadian News , Nov. 9 , 1865 , p. 311, and Canadian
News, Sept. 16, 1869, p. 182.

2. Canadian News , June 11 , 1866 , p. 109.

3. This applies to all drilled wells whether the bed¬
rock had been reached by an auger or by constructing
a dug surface well.

installation and noted that

when the rock is reached; a hole, say 2 \ or
3 inches in diameter is bored into it for per¬
haps a distance of a dozen feet. An iron pipe
is then driven into the hole in the same manner
as piles are driven into the earth. 1

As has been shown, a surface well dug to bedrock would

be cribbed. Where bedrock was 'reached by an auger it

appears to have been common, perhaps almost universal,

practice to pipe or case the bore hole. The casing

was ’’put in and driven down snug on the rock.” The pur¬
pose of the casing was to prevent cave-ins, keep out
water and quicksand as well as to act as an avenue for
the equipment to be used in drilling deeper and perhaps
for conducting oil from the ground. Quicksand was a
particularly ubiqituous offender and would often be
the cause for putting casing in a well that would not
otherwise be cased.

When a quicksand is reached, it causes a great
deal of trouble, as iron pipes have to be driven
down the bore until it is passed to keep the hole
clear. 3

Quicksand might and did enter the rock bore and pump
when the casing to bedrock was not properly seated.

1. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862. Frequently there was also

a' guide at ground level, see

2,. Globe, Aug. 30 , 1861 . See also Globjs, April 25 , 1862

forgone reference to the use of wooden pipe or tubing.

Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

Mr. Fowle and others using his method of driving pipe

before drilling or digging would already have the

casing in to bedrock before augering.

Once bedrock was reached there was considerably

more variety in procedure than one might expect. One

report said that "no piping is . employed" , a practice
which appears to have been followed in 1861 in one of

Williams * wells in which "near the top of the bore there

is a crevice in the rock through which the oil, if

allowed to reach so high, escapes where it goes there is
■ 3

no telling." A number of reports from the following

year give clear evidence of the use of pipe in the rock

bore. In some, such as a report of "oil and water

bursting up in large quantities through the tube" no
information is given as to how far down the casing extends.
Other accounts are more informative. In one instance pipes

Globe ,

June 25, 1861.

2 .

Globe ,

Sept . 2 , 1861 .

Globe ,

Sept . 6 , 18 61.

Hamilton Spectator, March 10, 1862. [Hereinafter
referred to as Spectator]. See also Globe, Mar.

12, 1862.

were being' inserted into a 218 foot well and in

another an ’’iron pipe has been driven down to a depth
2

of 180 feet."

One suspects that casing was not universal and

that for a reason, amongst others, that might not at

first be suspected, pipe was scarce. "When the oil was

struck in one case, the well flowed into the creek for

five days, waiting for piping to come from Buffalo."
Scarcity or complete lack of necessary parts and equip¬
ment with resultant losses was no stranger to the oil¬
men. Equipment was scarce largely because the industry
was new, poorly financed and in a rather remote area
with poor transportation facilities. As is to be ex¬
pected, this state of affairs was very influential in
determining the nature of the petroleum industry in
Ontario. Given the 'scarcity of pipe in the oil fields
of Ontario in the early years of the 1860s it is probably

1. Leader , Mar. 18, 1862. This was an old surface well
which had been drilled into bedrock.

2. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862. Further evidence for the
use of pipes comes from an interesting; report of
some industrial sabotage in the oil fields, see
Smith, S27-31b, Sept., 1862. The report reads in
part: "Somebody pulled up the pipes on Mr. Barnes
flowing well and allowed ... oil to escape. The
Oil Association is blamed."

3. Smith, S27-4, a published letter of Jas. B. Bennett
of Oil Springs, written Aug. 10, 1862. I do not
know where it was published.

fair to say that its use was not universal but

dependent on availability, the judgment of the driller,

lessee or owner of the well with emergencies forcing

the use of piping or cessation of drilling. With

the passage of time casing of wells became more and

more a part of near universal .practice but, as pointed

out earlier, was not universal even by the 1890s.

Weak and crumbling walls would often make piping necessary.

"At a depth of 100 feet a soft soapstone was met with

which caved-in, and rendered necessary the introduction

of great lengths of piping."

One of the reasons for casing a well was to help
peep the water under control. Whether the driller had a
well both cased and tubed or just tubed the basic proce¬
dure was the same. As has been shown in dealing with the
portion of the well to bedrock, casing, wooden or iron,
would be driven down so as to be snug on bedrock in the
hopes that surface water and quicksand would be pre¬
vented from entering the rock bore. One could not do
this in the rock bore as the bottom of it normally had
to allow free movement of oil and, unfortunately, its

1. See for example Globe , Mar. 12 , 1862 .

Globe , Mar. 12 , 1862 . The well went to 33 5
feet .

unwelcome companion water. Therefore the object of

the driller’s manoeuvres was to isolate the water

coming in through horizontal water-bearing strata. The

equipment used to accomplish this was catapulted into

the public eye with the Shaw gusher and is invariably

spoken of as if it were first used on that occasion.

Closer examination of available material reveals that

the "seed-bag” was being used before 1862.

The artifices employed to prevent an inconvenient
quantity of water from mingling with the oil in
the well is both simple and ingenious. It is
applicable, however, in those cases only where the
oil is found to enter the well through a fissure.

A hole is drilled about two feet below the vein,
the bottom of the pump is plugged, and feed holes
are bored in the side of the tube, two feet from
the extremity. Below and above the feed holes, two
leather bags containing linseed or peas are fastened
to the tube, the extremity of which is then inserted
into the drill at the bottom of the well, and the
feed holes turned opposite to the vein. The bags
with peas or linseed are adjusted round the tube,
above and below the vein, and packed or ruddled
as tightly as possible. Water slowly permeates the
leathern bag, swells the peas or linseed, and so
fills the drill that neither water or mud from above
or below can enter the feed holes of the pump in
sufficient quantity to interfere with the operation
of pumping out the oil. A second pump is introduced
for the purpose of drawing off the water above the
vein, if it accumulates in quantity sufficient to
arrest the flow of the oil in the manner explained
in preceding paragraphs.!

The oil would collect in the bottom of the pipe, the
non-perforated part, and then be pumped in the usual fashion.

1. "The oil wells in Enniskillen," Journal of the Board
of Arts and Manufactures for Upper Canada, I (June ,

1861) , 145-146.

A project similar to that above was being tried four

years later by Captain Dick in a well 32B feet in

the rock and bedevilled by water problesm.

With this well the manager has had much trouble.
There is a very great deal of oil in it some¬
where; but there is more water, and they have
been unable, so far, to stop the flow. The
pipes have been taken out a great many times
and seed bags placed at various points , but
without success. As an experiment Captain Dick
has plugged the end pipe and fitted it near the
bottom with a seed bag. Above this bag he caused
a series of holes to be made through the pipe.

One hundred and seventy feet above this he placed
another seed bag; the oil and water within this
space of 170 feet could alone find entrance into
the pipe. When yesterday the machinery was set
to work, nearly pure oil was first drawn; but
soon after water made its appearance. Sometimes
it comes mixed with the oil in large quantities ,
at other times there is a great rush of oil. The
well is evidently a very valuable one; and if the
water should not be exhausted shortly, the pipes
will have again to be taken up. It is worth the
expenditure of a great deal of money to get it
into working order. 1

The seed bag could also be used to reduce and

control the flow of oil in a gusher as was done with

the Shaw and other gushers . It is probable that when

Goderich brine wells were plagued with fresh water

getting in the tubing and diluting the brine seed bags

were called upon. Seedbagging was verv much a part of

1. Canadian News , May 4, 1865, p. 280.

2. Canadian News, Oct. 4, 1866, p. 213.

the normal procedure of sinking and preparing a

well for operation, one reporter giving the figure

of nine out of ten for the number of wells that had

to be seedbagged.

If seedbagging was a normal and near routine
operation for the oil well driller another of his
operations was not: "fishing" -- the retrieval of
deranged or detached equipment from the bore of a well.
Normally it was drilling tools, all or part of a string
of tools, that would be fished for but it might also
be the casing. Fishing jobs were necessary quite fre¬
quently and whenever newspaper editors and/or corres¬
pondents took it upon themselves to survey the load of
ills and disasters on the shoulders of those in the

oil fields references to tools of various kinds lost or

stuck in bore holes were sure to be part of the list.

Fishing jobs were usually not just an afternoon’s

3 4

work with jobs of four to six weeks being not unheard of.
Given the length of time and therefore money involved, add
to this the uncertainty as to the outcome and one is able

1. Canadian News, Nov. 30, 1865, p. 344.

2. See for example Canadian News , Dec. 22, 1864, p. 387
and Canadian News , Jan. 18, 1866, p. 37.

3. Canadian News , Aug. 10, 1865, p. 85.

4. Canadian News, Sept. 17, 1868, p. 180.

to see that when tools were lost there was a very

real possibility that to simply abandon the well

would be the most economically sound reaction. One

newspaper reported that "the sand pump has unfortu-

nately dropped and it may have to be abandoned." It
is not known whether or not the well was abandoned
but another well, a "first-class well", was abandoned
rather than face the expense and uncertainty of a
fishing job.

. . . the' Blackburn well is not pumping. This
is owing to the casing having collapsed and
some other serious trouble which it would have
cost more to get rid of than to drill a new
hole. The latter course Mr. Blackburn proposes
taking by moving his derrick two or three feet
from the old hole and drilling an entirely new
one from the top. This well was up to a few
weeks ago a first-class well, and we presume
would yet pump largely if properly cleaned out
and set going. 2

Not all apparent obstructions in wells necessi¬
tated fishing or abandonment. "The Wood well is
turning out a first-class well. There is a full set
of tools stuck in the bottom and yet the pump throws

1. Canadian News , Dec. 22, 1864, p. 387.

2. Canadian News , Sept. 16, 1869, p. 7.

100

five to seven barrels per day.”

When the drilling, casing, and fishing were over
it was time to pump the well. The pumping of wells
has been discussed to some extent and only two aspects
of steam pumping will be discussed here. The first to
be discussed is that of the multiple use of steam engines,
that is using a steam engine to perform more than one
task at any given time. The second area of discussion
is that of the influence of the mode of pumping and
drilling on the physical appearance of the oil fields.

The oil fields of Lambton County are still pro¬
ducing oil but on a very small scale. The daily yield
of individual wells is so small as to be measured in
gallons rather than in parts of a barrel. With pro¬
duction so low the cost of pumping a well would exceed
the value of the product were it not for the ingenious
jerker rod and field wheel system that allows many
wells to be pumped by one power source, today an electric
motor, before that an internal combustion engine, and
before that a steam engine. See Appendix D for

1. Canadian News , Sept. 27, 1866, p. 196. I have

found no descriptions of fishing tools during the
1860s. For descriptions from a later date and more
information on fishing see Merle G. Decker, Cable
Tool Fishing (n.p.; Water Well Journal Publishing
Co . , 1968), and Redwood, Petroleum , Volumes I, II.

101

descriptions of a system essentially unchanged for
over eighty and perhaps as much as over one hundred
years . The traditional story that the system was
first introduced by J. H. Fairbank in 1865 is a
story with which I wish to take issue.

Today the system is used because of the

scarcity of oil; in the 1860s there was a scarcity of

money and engines. J. H. Fairbank’ s Diary gives

considerable insight into the ’scarcity’ of steam

engines. It was more than just a physical scarcity

of steam engines. Engines were expensive, money was

scarce, and many could not have afforded more than

one engine if they were available. The problem was

combatted by renting, sharing, and generally moving

the engines about quite frequently. The engines

we re often broken and parts hard to come by. A

broken engine is about as useful as no engine. It
was for these reasons that men wanted to get as much
work as possible out of the engines present and in
working order. But as this thesis tries to point
out the engine shortage was even more acute earlier
than 1865 and one might therefore expect to find

Diary . Supporting evidence is found throughout.

102

steam engines being put to more than one use
simultaneously at a date earlier than 1865. This
is exactly what is found but Fairbank is not men¬
tioned as one of the innovators .

The first reference -to the use of one engine to
pump more than one well comes four years before the
normally accepted date for Fairbank Ts innovation. The
reference is to two surface wells. "Both wells are
worked by one steam engine of 6 horse power. They are

very close together and the engine is situated between
1

the two." The following year the ingenious Mr. Comar

is introduced and never heard of again.

Mr. Comar employs a steam engine of about 6
horsepower for drilling and pumping. He gets
but little oil -- not more than two barrels per
day, but he is determined to persevere. He
appears to be a most ingenious man, and has a
variety of contrivances for economizing labor.
Among others , he has fastened a shaft of wood
to a long pit saw, the shaft in its turn being
attached to a crank being turned by the engine.

By this means a reciprocating motion is obtained,
and a log placed under the saw is divided in a
very short time. The engine thus saws its own 2
wood to the great saving of its owner’s muscle.

Another good example of multiple use comes from the

same year.

Mr. Adams is now sinking a well, and has got
276 feet into the rock. The drilling is done

1. - Globe , Sept. 12, 1861.

2. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

103

by steam; two walking beams are used — one for
pumping the water and oil out of the surface well
and one for drilling. 1

The three examples cited give three different ways

in which one engine was used to do more than one job at

a given time. Only one of these, the first, is similar

in detail, although all are similar in spirit, to that

of Fairbank's. In 1865, the year in which Fairbank is

reputed to have instituted his system his name is not

mentioned but there is considerable evidence that multiple

use was accepted practice. One article mentioned three

cases of wells being drilled adjoining to steam saw mills

using the mill engine for drilling and pumping "ile".

Messrs. Manning and Co,, of Toronto, seemed bent

on showing just how versatile a steam engine could be.

The engine used in the refinery is to be employed
in pumping the well for the present. Preparations
are also being made for sinking a second well, one
hundred feet south of the present one, and working
both with a twenty horsepower engine. 3

'Captain Dick who has been introduced in connection with

seedbagging was active in Oil Springs and one of the

leaders in innovative practice.

These wells are only 21 feet apart and worked
up on an entirely new plan; both wells will be

Canadian

News ,

March

1862 ,

P-

151.

2 •

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

16,

1865 ,

P-

314.

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

1865 ,

341.

104

drilled at the same time, and when the drilling
is completed they will be pumped by one walking
beam. 1

in the same article the old Fairbanks well is men¬
tioned but no unusual or new techniques are given
unlike the case of the "Niles Company" which was
planning to use a twenty-five horsepower engine to
pump three wells . In the same month it was reported

that "in several cases a single engine, of adequate

power, is used for pumping two wells."

All of the above leads to the conclusion that

a development started in 1861 by men of very limited

means confronted with an engine scarcity had by 1865

been seized upon by men of greater capital who also

found in it an economical way to work wells. By 1866

it seems to. have been common enough that no comment

was needed when it was reported that

Mr. J. Shaw, who suddenly found himself famous one
day in 1862 is about to give the old spot another
good "try", over again. He has a three inch pump
and a boiler, much the largest in the diggings, ^
which ought to be able to drive two or three pumps .

— !• Canadian News , Dec. 7 , 186 5 , p. 362 .

2. Canadian News , Dec. 21, 1865, p. 391.

3. Observer , April 20, 1866. The article quoted is
important in that it is J. not Hugh Nixon Shaw men¬
tioned. This is merely one of the many pieces of
evidence available to show that the Shaw gusher was
not the work of Hugh Nixon Shaw but of John Shaw.

One might interpret the reference to a large boiler

as meaning that one boiler would power several engines
as was done in refineries for safety reasons, but I
believe that such an interpretation would be incorrect.

105

From the way in which the article is written it is
evident that it is not Shaw’s multiple pumping that
is important but that he is going to use a different
pump speed and stroke.

Two years later, 1868, when Enniskillen was again
in one of its permanently temporary slumps a reporter
from the Montreal Gazette was enthusiastically waxing
eloquent .

Oil City, once the scene of flowing wells which
seemed exhaustless, is now a "deserted village;"
and even Petrolia, the scene of more recent
activity and good fortune, is but the ghost of
its former self, and its silent neglected pumping
stations rear their gaunt heads among the forest ^

trees like veiled spectres, moaning Ichabod! Ichabod!"

It is impossible to tell whether these "silent neglected
pumping stations" were engine houses from which many
wells were pumped by one engine or merely more conven¬
tional derricks hit at a gallop by a runaway reporter

armed with a poetic license. It is not an unimportant
point because the introduction of the jerker rod and
field wheel system for pumping many wells with one
engine altered the physical appearance of the oil fields.

1. Canadian News, Sept. 17, 1868, p. 179. ■

2. Canadian News , May 4, 1865, p. 279. One might also
aik, without answering, whether the "moving beams"
and "travelling ropes" of Oil Springs might refer
to a multiple pumping system.

106

Early. descriptions and photographs of the oil

fields do not mention or show long lines of creaking

jerker rods snaking across fields for miles, forcing

walking beams to monotonously nod all day and through

the night. One type of derrick shown is that combining

well cover and engine house such as seen in the photo'

of the Pepper Well and picturesquely described in the

following. "The derrick village ... is more like a

colony of Dutch churches than anything else for a

derrick is a roofed house with a tower at one end of
1

it." The picture of the Noble Wells with its two

towers leads one to suspect that one engine pumped
2

two wells . The Noble Well is an impressive looking
edifice perhaps tidied up a bit by the artist. A close
look at the Pepper Well photo reveals less evenness in
carpentry. One well description mentions nothing of
fine workmanship, only crude functionalism. "The

1. Canadian News, Aug. 17, 1865, p. 102.

2. The description accompanying the engraving confirms
these suspicions. "John D. Noble... has done very
much towards lessening the cost of the production
of Crude Oil by consolidating the machinery and
appliances thereof, under one building, for the pur¬
pose. of pumping several wells with the same amount of
labour and fuel which is ordinarily used in the pumping
of one as will be seen in our illustration." See "Oil
Wells of John D. Noble, Esq., at Petrolia, Ontario,
Canada," Canadian Illustrated News , Eeb . 11, 1871, p. 83.
The illustration certainly does not clearly 'show what

it purports to show.

107

derricks are built of pine scantling, in cone form,

and each covers a distinct well." The above and that

to follow suggest that the engine need not be in the

same building as the well.

... ten wells are in process of being drilled.
The derrick raised over each is enclosed in
frame work and boarding. Each is fifty or sixtv
feet high; fifteen or twenty feet wide at the
base, six feet wide at the apex. They resemble
clusters of windmill towers without the arms and
sails , or dumpy church steeples without the
churches . 2

A derrick of this size would have no room for the
engine inside. When pipes or sucker rods had to be
drawn up the reason for the height becomes apparent as
the men at the top of the derrick could handle and set
them hanging from racks like hose drying in a fire
station after a fire.

By the 1870s "windmill towers without arms and
sails" and "dumpy church steeples without the churches"
.were becoming rarer, replaced by simple three pole
tripods over a well site which is nothing more than an
upright post on which, in obedience to its jerker rod,
a walking beam nods monotonously. With a centralized

1, Canadian News , May 25, 1865, p. 326.

2. Canadian News , June 14, 1866, p. 375.

108

pumping system and portable equipment for drilling
wells and pulling pipes and pumps no more than a
tripod , and not even that as tripods are easily moved,
was needed at each well. The massive derrick serves
no useful purpose once the well is drilled except for
when the well must be pulled.. The result was the
disappearance of the massive but picturesque derrick.
The derrick was for many the symbol of an exciting
and unpredictable industry. The beginning of the
passing away of the huge oil derrick was signaling that
by the end of the 1860s considerable experimentation
and innovation had taken place and a system of working
had been developed and instituted that was to change
very little.

109

CHAPTER III

CREATING A MARKETABLE PRODUCT

Preparing Canadian petroleum for commercial

sale presented a number of chemical problems just

as difficult to solve as the mechanical ones. In the

first place Lambton crude had a particularly offensive

odour. The "stinking stuff" was described as possessing

"abominable odors" and a "stink which rivalled a nest
2

of polecats". The undesirable odours were due, as is

the case with many high sulphur Devonian crudes , to

the presence of organic sulphur compounds having odours

pesembling onions and leeks. During the 1860s a chemical
explanation could not be given for the odours but thev

1. Observer , June 24, 1885.

2. These words are attributed to Thurston G. Hall who
claimed he was going to take the "skunk" from Canadian
petroleum. Hall is a rather fascinating character
with an impressive but fraudulent scheme to use
electricity and some rocks to purify and produce
petroleum products. The best introduction to Hall
and his schemes is in the Observer , Oct. 21, 1887.

and Smith , S16 pp . 1-9.

3. Canadian News , May 4, 1865, p. 279. See also G. A.
Purdy, Petroleum: Prehistoric to Petrochemicals
(Vancouver: Copp Clark, 1957), p. 68. [Hereinafter
referred to as Purdy, Petroleum] .

110

were there nevertheless. Speaking of the oil regions

of Lambton the Toronto Globe remarked that "the scene

is a pleasant one to the eye" and then added "... but

what is this that assails the nose? A compound of

onions, and garlic, and antiquated eggs, most horrible'

to the unitiated, but to the oil digger sweet as the

scent of new mown hay." Customers tended to suffer
from debility of the imagination and were less tolerant
of the odour.

Bad smell meant lower prices and a restricted
market. The Lambton product, unless sold under
false pretences , was often bought only when low sulphur
crudes were unavailable, and even then at a reduced price.
Furthermore, carelessly barreled oil frequently con¬
tained additional impurities. It was an oft-repeated
story that in early shipments, sticks, leaves, and
twigs had been barreled along with the oil sent to
England. One individual, interested in seeing that
Canada and Canadian oil not be given a bad name, called
in vain for the institution of government inspection
"to prevent such wretched frauds as we understand

Canadian News, Dec. 3, 1863, p. 426.

■

Ill

have recently been attempted.”

Lambton crude and refined were malodorous

because of the presence of hydrogen sulphide and other
impurities many of which could be neither identified
nor removed. The chemical knowledge and skills of the
1860s were inadequate for properly refining Lambton .
crude. The necessary plant facilities for proper
refining were also lacking. A Globe editorial ex¬
claimed that the oil producers were suffering because of

the "lack of means of converting it into a burning fluid
3

for use." The "lack" was not due to a shortage in
numbers of so-called refiners. Until the end of 1862

1. "Necessity for a Government petroleum Inspector,"
Journal of the Board of Arts and Manufactures for
Upper Canada, TT (Sept . , 18 6 2 ), 261 . [The Journal

is hereinafter referred to as Manufactures for Upper
Canada] . In July 1867 the word Ontario was substi-
tuted for Upper Canada.

2. Hydrogen sulphide was usually called "sulphurated
hydrogen". Good evidence for the presence of hydro¬
gen sulphide is seen in the statement that "all
white-painted buildings were discolored with gas." The
above is attributed to a resident of Wyoming during
the 1860s and is to be found in Smith S20-5 in a
quotation from a newspaper of March 1, 1917 dealing
with the reminiscences of E. C. Rice.

Globe, Oct. 29, 1861. In the editorial it was
gleefully reported that although Canada until re¬
cently had only two rock oil refineries it would
have twelve to fifteen within a few weeks .

112

the producers seemed to be getting poorer and the

refiners richer. Such a seemingly lucrative business
attracted many men who had neither the chemical know¬
ledge nor the capital to produce a product acceptable
by the standards of the day.

Although it will not be emphasized in this
thesis those distillers and/or refiners pursuing the
requisite skills and material resources to produce a
consistently good product were not, so to speak,
operating in a vacuum. As regards the technologv
of production, various problems faced in the petroleum
industry had been confronted and to some extent
solved or at least worked on in related but earlier
work by men such as Seligue, Young, and Gesner, and
others who concerned themselves with the problem of
purifying coal gas, particularly removing sulphur1.

As various petroleum products were introduced
there were standards of comparison in pre-existing
products which the petroleum interests hoped to dis¬
place by showing that the new petroleum products
were better.

1. Hamilton Times , Sept. 1. 1865. [Hereinafter
referred to as Times].

113

The major nineteenth-century petroleum product
was an illuminant, variously called coal oil, kerosene,
or trade names such as Victoria Oil. The comparison
of petroleum derived products with non-petroleum based
products, the posting of claims and counterclaims, an
eventual change of view, and share in the market is
seen in the activities of Messrs. Parson Brothers of
Toronto. A short history of their involvement in the
illuminating fluid business is given in the Globe, Feb.
7, 1861, but a better indication of the shift is re¬
vealed in their newspaper advertisements.

By early 1859 it is clear that Messrs. Parson
Brothers were beginning to feel the pinch, they claimed
the stench, of a new product and inserted an advertise-
ment in the Toronto Leader for the benefit of their
friends and customers.

A CARD TO CONSUMERS OF COAL OIL

The subscribers have been. for some time annoyed
with numerous complaints from the consumers of
coal oil, of having purchased a disgustingly
nauseous compound, which interested parties have
palmed off for coal oil. We should simply sav
once and for all that this worthless and offensive
stuff has not been purchased from us. We take this
method at the request of many of our customers who
have been deceived in this wav > to caution our
friends to see that those whom they send for Coal
Oil find the right place. In consequence of the
enormous demand we have sometimes been obliged
to curtail the required quantitv, but our oil can
always be relied upon, and our arrangements are

114

such that we trust very soon to be no longer
troubled by short supply. 1

The warning was supplemented by various other public

service announcements -- advertisements -- regarding the

receipt of Coal Oil "entirely free from unpleasant
2

smell" and announcing that they could supplv 1000

gallons per week'. It is apparent that neither the
citizens or Toronto nor the oleaginous interests were
heeding the polite blandishments of Messrs. Parson who,
in order to protect the public, found it necessary to
be harsher and less polite. The previously anonymous
"disgustingly nauseous compound" was now publicly
identified and accused of its crimes.

TO CONSUMERS AND DEALERS IN COAL OIL

The justly celebrated reputation of coal oil as
a cheap and brilliant light has induced parties
with whose interests it has interfered to sell
various disagreeable compounds under the name
of coal oil, with the evident intention of bringing
the genuine article into disrepute. Disgustingly
nauseous Petroleum or Earth Oils throwing off
pernicious gases , mos t~d~etrimental to health,
and comfort are now being offered for sale and
also being labelled as Coal Oil. The subscribers
would caution the public against these barefaced
imposters , and would notifv that they are now

1. Leader , April 18, 1859.

2. Leader , May 3, 1859.

3. Leader, July 2, 1859.

‘

115

prepared to fill all orders with a beautiful
article of pure coal oil at reduced prices.

Be sure to get Excelsior Coal Oil.l

But alas and fortunately for the hero petroleum, alias

rock oil, although the nineteenth century was filled

with cruel villains it was also one in which the weak and

helpless were often able to find selfless supporters

and proectors who ushered them into polite society. Rock
2

oil found such a protector of maligned innocents in the
person of a man of the cloth, the Reverend Mr. John Grav
of Orillia. Orillia was not quite the centre of polite
society but the Reverend Gray was a good character witness,
defended the honour of Rock Oil and took a dignified poke
at Messrs. Parson.

PETROLEUM OR COAL OIL

H. Piper and Brothers beg leave to draw attention
of the public to the subjoined certificate
(unsolicited) from the Rev. Mr. John Grav, of
Orillia . . .

Certificate -- This is to certify that for nearly
two months I have used coal oil made from the
Enniskillen petroleum, and have during that time,
carefully compared it with oil purchased from
Parsons of Toronto, that such comparison has lead
me to conclude, that in regard to purity of
appearance, comparative freedom from offensive smell,
the quality of the light which it gives , and its
effect upon the eyesight, the oil from Enniskillen
petroleum is superior to that furnished by Parsons .

1* Globe , Sept. 21, 1859. My italics.

2. Also known as Enniskillen petroleum, petroleum,

earth oil or just that stinking oleaginous stuff.

116

John Gray, Presbyterian minister from Orillia
and Ea'st Oro, the Manse, Orillia. 1

If the above, an unsolicited testimonial from a

man of God, was not enough, and if he seemed to hedge

a bit by speaking only of "comparative freedom from

offensive smell" then one had only to remember that even

before being taken under the wing of Rev. Gray, Prof.

Crofts of the University had rendered Lambton rock oil

fit for polite company by removing its "unmis take able
2

effluvium. "

The war raged on for some time but eventually Messrs.

Parson softened their attitude towards Rock Oil and

forgave his past transgressions. The Rev. Gray probably

had nothing to do with the change in attitude , petroleum

illuminants with all of their faults were a better buy

than any other product. As indicated in the history to

be found in the Globe , Feb. 7, 1861, they first turned

to Pennsylvania crude oil and then to Canadian.

We see by the Globe of Wednesday that Messrs.

Parson Bros., extensive coal oil importers, have

1. Leader , Sept. 30, 1859.

2. On May 31, 1859 the Toronto Leader announced that the
odour had been eliminated from Enniskillen Oil. In
the Smith Collection the following newspaper article of
June 3, 1859 is found. "Prof. Crofts has succeeded in
deodorizing the natural oil found in the County of
Lambton. This was all that was required before being
placed on the market. Mr. Williams has already secured
some 20,000 gallons in its crude state. We expect it
will soon be on sale, its illuminating qualities are
unequalled, but it had an unmistakable effluvium." See
also Canadian News, Feb. 1, 1860, p. 38.

117

determined to establish another refinery at
Toronto, and will use the Canadian as well as
the Pennsylvania oils in this establishment.

This is encouraging, and ought to induce Canadians
to patronize home manufactures , especially when
of a superior kind.l

Price was not the only factor to consider when

buying illuminants; safety was important. Camphene ,

a lighting fluid composed of turpentine and alcohol,

was, during the 1850s, very common and economical.

Due to its extreme volatility camphene was extremely

dangerous. Many an advertiser found it necessarv to

point out that his product was not camphene nor was

it as dangerous as camphene even though his competitors’

Pennsylvania product might be.

Throughout the nineteenth century the most important

1. Observer , May 3, 1861.

2. See for example the advertisement of The Canadian
Oil Company, Leader , Mar. 29, 1861, in which it was
claimed that "the large majority of rock oils, im¬
ported from the U.S.A. are beyond question explosive.
Many of them moreso than Camphene." In order to
prove the safety of their product the Canadian Oil
Company suggested a "test to ascertain the explosive
qualities of oils. Pour, sav a teaspoonful of oil
upon a board and place a lighted match in contact
with it. If the oil is explosive it will instantly
ignite like camphene; if non-explosive it will

only ignite after the flame has heated' the oil."

118

single use of petroleum was as an illuminant and its
’success’ in this role was, above all else, a tribute
.or insult to the skill of the distiller and refiner.

The preparation of a socially acceptable safe illuminant
from crude petroleum involved two distinct but related
processes: distillation and refining. Distillation was
the simpler and less complex of the two, having as its
purpose the production of a liquid lacking the lighter
and more volatile fractions as well as the heavier and
more viscous fractions or residue. Distilling was a mere
one step preparatory process whereas refining involved a
number of steps and had as its aim the production of
various finished products ready for consumption. Needless
to say, deodorization was one of the most important and
most baffling steps in refining. Both operations, viz.
distilling and refining, could be performed in the same
plant but often were not. It seems that many customers
did not understand the difference between refined and
distilled and some sharp dealers sold distilled for the
price of refined, much to the chagrin of their customers
who soon joined the ranks of those who had nothing good
to say about petroleum.

As with much of the early growth of the oil industry
the development of the refining and distillation facilities

119

was rather haphazard. Out of this chaotic and

apparently directionless growth an industry emerged.

Many simply did not know how to react to the prospect

of the growth of a new industry. A prime example was

the Sarnia Council which when asked to grant permission

for a Mr. Forsyth to erect a refinery within the town

limits was not quite sure what it should do. The Council

was uncertain whether or not it had the power to grant

or refuse such a petition, but decided in Mr. Forsyth’s

favour because they did not like to discourage the growth

of their town. Not all seemed as perplexed or as willing.

One year later George Stevenson was complaining that

"for five different companies I have tried to purchase

sites for oil refineries , and in no case have I been

successful.” Neither the Grand Trunk not the Indians

on the Indian Reservation were sure how valuable bay

or river frontage was and were in no hurry to sell. Not
all of the inaction was due to confusion or opportunism;
there was a steady growth of opposition to refiners
and their refineries . No one seemed to oppose refineries

1. Observer , Feb. 28, 1862.

2. Observer, Mar. 30, 1863.

120

as long as they were in someone else’s neighbourhood.

By 1871 Sarnia Council seemed to have emerged from

their fog of indifference or perhaps were choking in

the fumes and refused to allow the Dominion of Canada

Oil Refining Company to erect a refinery in Sarnia as

"one refinery at the north end is enough without having

another one at the south end." Two years earlier the

hostility towards refinery odours had reached the

courts where it was decided that the unpleasantries

were just a part of modern life. Refineries, though a

nuisance, were a necessary nuisance and would stay.

Petroleum wells and refineries were the source of
very visible and obnoxious industrial pollutants. There
was no desire to annihilate a struggling young industry
but, on the other hand, there were others to consider
and no one wanted Canada to reproduce the grimy smoke-
filled cities and polluted waters of industrial England.
The problem is well illustrated by an incident in
Hamilton .

1. Observer, Feb. 17, 1871. The Company, which proved to
be a colossal 'bust' and a fraud, solved its problem
by buying Indian Reservation land, a continuing trend
in the Sarnia region as Chemical Valley grows larger
and the Reservation smaller.

Observer, March 5, 1869. This attitude remains
sub s t anti ally unchanged.

•

121

We have been informed that the refuse from the
coal oil refineries , which is emptied into the
bay and lake is having a very deleterious effect
upon the fisheries at the beach. It is said that
the water on certain mornings is covered for a
considerable distance with oil, and the effect has
been to drive away the fish from the beach. The
subject is not without difficulty. In the infancy
of the coal oil business it would be inexpedient
to place restrictions on the operations of refineries ,
but at the same time it would be disastrous to the
fishing interest if the fish are to be driven from
the beach by the noxious effluvia arising from coal oil.

Little attention was paid to such appeals .

At one time the Oil Springs neighbourhood promised
to become a little manufacturing citv, and the smoke
from its numerous chimneys might have put some people
in mind of what they had seen at "home". 2

The "home" being referred to was no doubt the grimy,

smoke-filled industrial cities of England and elsewhere -

from which many had fled to Canada.

There was a good reason why Oil Springs and a number
of other areas were beginning to look like home. Perhaps
the poltiicians did not know how to react to this new
source of wealth from the bowels of the earth but others
did. The drillers, distillers, and refiners were very

1. Canadian News, July 3, 1862, p. 11. Based on a report
from the Hamilton Spectator. The fish lost; the
effluent society won.

2. Times , Sept. 1, 1865.

3. It is unlikely that the desire to find relatively un¬
polluted air was a major reason for coming to Canada.
Many came to escape grinding recurrent cycles of
poverty and unemployment that they were caught in: a
spiritual more than a physical pollutant.

122

busy. Thos'e who had even some of their senses about

them knew that something was ado. "The atmosphere,

especially on foggy days was heavy with the perfume of

crude oil and all white-painted buildings were discolored
1

with gas . " Many times Allan Duncan had good reason

to write in his journal that "there was a strong smell

today from the refineries here."

The building boom for refineries and distilleries
began in early to mid 1861 and by 1862 there was no
question that it was indeed a boom. The data to paint
an exact picture of the growth has been lost, perhaps
irretrievably, but there is enough to sketch a general
outline. The spring of 1861 witnessed the blossoming of
many plans for refineries, not all of which materialized.
By March it was announced that Mooretown, a St. Clair
River port of 250 people, had a "refinery" and "a

magnificent road leading direct from the wells thither."
The so-called road was anything but magnificent and from
the lack of further reports I suspect that if the

1. Smith , S20-5.

2. Diary of Allan Duncan, Mar. 11, 1869, as quoted in
Smith”, S20-3 . The diary is to the best of my know¬
ledge unpublished.

3. Observer , Mar. 29, 1861.

123

refinery existed at all it was a crude distillery.

The following month the London Free Press announced

that six stills had passed through London on their

way to Enniskillen for the new refinery being es-

tablished there. It is possible that these were des¬
tined for the Petrolia works of the Petrolia Oil Re¬
fining Company which in early May was to have been in

operation by the first of June of the same year. Delays,

almost invariably due to a shortage of crucial parts

and equipment, were a way of life in Enniskillen and

two and a half months after the projected opening

date the refinery still lacked Ma competent person to

take charge.” The said ’’competent person” was to come
3

from Boston and arrived before the end of September, bv

which time the refinery was "turning out an excellent
4

article." At the same time, it was noted that

1. Free Press , April 18, 1861.

2. Observer, May 3, 1861. It was also announced that
Parson Bros, of Toronto were building another
refinery at Toronto in which Canadian oils as well
as Pennsylvania oils would be worked.

3. Observer , Aug. 16, 1861.

4. Leader, Oct. 1, 1861. Several weeks later the Observer,
Oct. 18, 1861, described their product as "an article

of burning oil equal to anything we have ever seen or
used" this having been determined "by actual experiment."

124

many, other refineries are now being built,
owing, no doubt, to the fact that the business
of refining is found to be immensely profitable.

The oil is purchased at about three to five cents
per gallon. It is refined at a trifling cost,
and is retailed at from 60 to 80£ per gallon.

So far the refiners have had all the profits.l

A Globe editorial exhorted refiners and would-be

refiners to correct "the lack of the means of converting

it [crude petroleum] into a burning fluid fit for use."

The same editorial made it clear that this problem was

at least being faced even though not yet solved for,

while lamenting that "there have been until lately only

two refineries in Canada, both near the citv of Hamilton,"

it was announced that "12 to 15 refineries will be in

operation in a few weeks." As is to be expected from
perpetually over-optimistic newspaper and refiners' reports

1. Leader , Oct. 1, 1861.

2. Globe, Oct. 29, 1861. It is not known how late
^adfely" is ; in the same article it was mentioned
that 2 refineries were in operation in Toronto with
a third to be started soon. The refineries in
Enniskillen, Port Credit and London were nearly com¬
plete and those in Sarnia, Komaka , Woodstock, and
Welland either operating or under construction. There
were also 2 in Lower Canada, projected or begun.
Essentially the same information as in the Globe of
Oct. 29, 1861 is given without acknowledgment Tn the
Canadian News , Dec. 12, 1861, p. 277, in an article
making it clear that, in their opinion, refineries
were the domain of those with capital — capital to
risk. "Considerable capital, say from $6 .,000 to
$10,000, is required to start works on a scale large
enough to be profitable, and then there is the risk

of fire, which will always make the business a
hazardous one."

125

the opening, of refineries did not quite happen as fast

as predicted. The Woodstock Oil Refinery, "nearly com-

pleted" on October 18, 1861, to be "in operation in a

few weeks" on October 29, 1861, was by November 11, 1861

"expected to be completed in the course of four weeks at

the farthest."

Sure of its direction but not of its pace the
refinery construction boom charged, some might say
wandered and wallowed, into 1862. It is difficult to
say just how much progress was made in 1861; there was
some since by early January 1862 Messrs. O’Reilly and
Savigny had advanced far enough to have had their
uninsured refinery in operation and allowed gas to es¬
cape and come into contact with a lamp. The resulting

explosion and fire left them with half a refinery which

was to be rebuilt "in the course of a few days."

Spring in Enniskillen brought seemingly unlimited
quantities of mud and the reappearance of newspapermen.

1. Observer , Oct. 18, 1861.

2. Globe, Oct. 29, 1861.

3. Globe , Nov. 11, 1861.

4. Globe, Jan. 11, 1862. A few days was the usual time

given as necessary to rebuild a burned and/or exploded
refinery. Often a few days would last more than a
month and some of the few days have yet to expire.
Newspapermen and refiners often allowed- their desires
to interfere with informed judgment.

126

Just how many refineries there were in the oil regions

is not clear but the pace of construction was hectic.

In the issue of March 6, 1862, probably reflecting the

situation in Canada in late January or early to mid

February, the Canadian News announced that there would

soon be four refineries at Black Creek. On March 10,

1862 it was reported that Oil Springs had six refineries

and yet by March 18, 1862 this number is supposed to have

increased to fifteen. It is doubtful that nine refineries
were built or opened in 8 days. The reason for the
apparently rapid rate of construction is that in the report
of March 10 it is' clearly the "village of Oil Springs"
with its "population of 600, 4 stores, 2 taverns, 6
oil ■ ref ineries , 4 cooper's shops ..." that is being
referred to. In the report of March 18, although the
author again appears to be referring to the village of
Oil Springs , his refinery figures probably refer to the
general vicinity in which oil was to be found, a vicinity
frequently referred to as the oil springs or the diggings.
This interpretation is buttressed by subsequent reports.

1. Canadian News , Mar. 6 , 1862 , p. 151.

2. Spectator , Mar. 10, 1862. The figure of six is given
m Canadian News , April 10 , 1862 , p. 231.

3. Leader, Mar. 18, 1862.

r "

127

It is known that by May 1862 Mr. Hugh Nixon Shaw had

completed the refinery he had talked about in September

1861 because it burned and three of the stills were

damaged. In reporting this calamity the Oil Springs

Chronicle noted that "we have one refinery less in operation

to report. The number now here, completed, operating.

and ready for operation is six, not including: the one
1

at Petrolia." The reports for July also indicate that

fifteen is a little high for the number of .ref ineries

at Oil Springs. A July 4, 1862 report "concerning the

oil region" speaks of "9 refineries here on various scales

of magnitude." Three weeks later it was reported that

there were "ten refineries in this immediate locality

and several others within a compass of twenty miles."
Unfortunately meanings of terms such as "immediate
locality" and "several others" are not known. The
figure of fifteen oil refineries in the oil springs

■1. Oil Springs Chronicle as quoted in Observer , May 20,

1982. The Canadian News , June 19, 1862, p. 391, based
on a dispatch from a correspondent of the Hamilton
Times, says of Oil Springs: "there are 6 or 7 refineries
here, and one belonging to a Boston Company at Petrolia."

2. Times , July 4, 1862.

3. Observer, July 24, 1862. The Canadian News, Aug. 7, 1862,
pi 8 6 , replying on a correspondent from Enniskillen
reports nine refineries , apparently for Oil Springs .

These were on various scales of magnitude and he ex¬
pected many more soon. One of the reasons for the
increase was that "in most cities and towns a prejudice
exis_ts against oil refineries , which is here totallv
unknown except by report."

128

region included Wyoming. It is traditionally held that

in 1862 Wyoming had six refineries. An official tabu¬
lation, if anything is to be called an official tabulation,

of the number of refineries in Ontario in 1862 credits Wyoming

having only one. The source for the above is the Toronto

Review of Trade for 1862 in which Wyoming is given one,

Petrolia one, Oil Springs eleven and Sarnia two refineries,

giving a total of fifteen refineries for the oil regions

if Sarnia is included, thirteen otherwise. The editor

was not sure about Wyoming but guessed it to have one

refinery of five stills. The figure for Wyoming is close

to six and it is not inconceivable that a visitor or

reporter regarded each still as a refinery rather than

seeing a refinery as having a group of stills.

While describing the growth of refining capacity in

the oil fields of Canada West it should not be forgotten

that many distilled and then shipped the Moil as it comes

from the still without further treatment."

1. See Smith , S20-1, 1967, and Smith , S20-19, circa 1960.

2 r "The Petroleum Trade," Annual Report of the Board ot
Trade, With a Review of the Commerce of Toronto for
18 6 2 ~ (Toronto: E. Wiman , 1863), 34-37 . [Hereinafter
referred to as "Petroleum," Board of Trade, 1862],

Canadian News , Oct. 9, 1862, p. 236.

129

Since 'refined oil has advanced so much in price
everybody has made up his mind to build a refinery,
or at least to put up a still, and the probability
is that one hundred stills will be in operation in
this place in less than two months . 1

The extent of the growth of distilling capacity is seen

in the Oil Springs Chronicle statement that

it is estimated, from reliable data, that it will
require upwards of 4,000 barrels of crude oil to
charge a single time all the stills now in Canada. 2

The above refers to a time when refining capacity was

2,400 barrels per week meaning that to charge all

refineries once would take much less than 2,400 barrels.

Much money had been invested in building the

refining and distilling capacity to the point it reached

by the end of 1862 and few realized at the time that the

peak had been reached and a two year depression w as to

follow. The cessation of the flowing wells early in 1863

forced many refineries to close. Many refiners did not
have the resources to weather prolonged inactivity and

1. Canadian News, Jan. 15, 1863, p. 36, from the

Oil Springs Chronicle, no date given but it is probably
late December.

2. Canadian News , Feb. 12 , 1863 , p. 108.

3. "Petroleum," Board of Trade, 1862, p. 36.

4. Canadian News , April 16, 1863, p. 244.

‘

130

were wiped out. By 18 65 there were ’’but 2 or 3 re-

fineries ... in all the Oil Springs neighbourhood.”

At the end of the same year there was but one in Oil
2

Springs. Fate was most particularly unkind to Oil

Springs as the earth was to give of her oil more freely

at Petrolia where there was a railroad. Oil Springs

was once again isolated as the plank road to Petrolia,

now a useless link, fell into disrepair and was "all but

impassable.” Symbolic of capitulation and misfortune was

the closing of the last refinery.

. . . there has been only one refinery at work there
for many months past, and that suspended operations
because its stills were worn out, and the proprietor
did not feel justified, under the then prospects of
business to put in new ones . 3

The stills had worn out in Oil Springs and so too had the
ground but the rest of Enniskillen had oil and where
there was oil there was life.

During 1865 the depressed times became less so and
an era was ushered in characterized more by a few large
producers than by many smaller although the small had
by no means disappeared. Amongst the refiners and dis¬
tillers in the first half of the 1860s there was a high
rate of financial failure. It is also true that Petrolia,

1. Times, Sept. 1, 1865. The Observer , Dec. 8, 1865,
sounds as if there is only one refinery in Petrolia.

2. Canadian News, Dec. 28, 1865, p. 407.

Canadian News, July 2, 1868, p. 7.

131

Wyoming, and Oil Springs, i.e. the villages in the

heart of the oil regions, were not the major refining

centres of Ontario crude as this operation was being

carried on in the larger urban centres both in and out
1

of Canada; the figures in the Monetary Times clearly

attest to the continuation of this trend.

Refining and distilling represent two traditions
in two different senses. First, as clearly indicated
previously, refining and distilling are two distinct
operations. Second, during the 1860s there grew up two
traditions as regards size: the large and the small scale
with the latter predominating in terms of number of
companies involved. Although the small tended to be
the most financially unstable and vulnerable there were
a few rather grand and glorious failures and frauds
amongst the large outfits. In general, those who
managed to travel from the ranks of small scale pro¬
ducers and refiners to the large scale tended not to
have fewer financial difficulties and setbacks early
in their careers they just appeared to be more resilient.
Some of the earliest steps towards commercial exploitation

1. Observer , July 20, 1871.

2. The Monetary Times is the best single source of
information of this type.

132

were taken by men unable to survive the financial
and technological struggles met in establishing a
new industry.

Much of what little commercial exploitation

of Canada West petroleum that took place in the early

l850s is shrouded in mystery. Little is known about

the equipment used throughout the 1850s. It is known

that in 1854 , two years after their initial application,

The International Mining and Manufacturing Co. were

granted a charter. The Tripp brothers, Charles and

Henry, seemed to be the most dynamic of the partners.

The following year at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 the

company was awarded an honourable mention for its
2

asphaltum. The raw material for the asphaltum came

from the "Gum Beds" of Enniskillen, "large deposits

of the dried residuum of oil, from which all the vola-

tile parts have evaporated and escaped." Charles
Tripp seems to have done most of the technical work
and could have produced the asphaltum exhibited in Paris

1. The charter is given in Appendix D.

2. J. C. Tache , Canada at the Universal Exhibition of
mgs 4 (Toronto:: John Lovell, 1856 ), p. 372. The
award was said to be made to "Hamilton International
Company, for asphalt."

Observer-, Jan. 24 , 1863.

■ .1 ? • ■ *o rtout

133

using very crude equipment -- a simple distillation
apparatus to drive off but not to save the remaining
more volatile components, and a crude screen or filter
to rid the asphaltum of mechanically separable impuri¬
ties such as twigs, leaves, and gravel. He then might
have added a binding agent such as sand or gravel. There
is good, although far from conclusive evidence that

Charles Tripp wanted to produce a lighting fluid from

liquid petroleum. Whatever his intention, it is quite

clear that he did not succeed and by late 1858 or 1859

a Hamilton entrepreneur James Miller Williams was in
2

control. and working Tripp’s oil lands.

In August of 1858 liquid petroleum (mineral

oil) from Enniskillen was being used to make a lamp

oil with the preparation (refining) being done by

Williams in Hamilton. It is not clear whether any

preparation, possibly distilling, was being done in
3

Enniskillen. But by December Williams was distilling,
perhaps refining in Enniskillen.

1. Free Press, Jan. 27, 1859.

Free Press, Jan. 27, 1859. Williams was not one of
the original members of the Company and I do not know
exactly when he became involved.

Free Press, Aug. 26, 1858. The article mentions
burning oil and it is clear that it is not a dis¬
tilled but a crude oil being burned. It is also
clear that the oil was from a liquid.

134

We learn that the proprietor of the land in
which the Springs are situated, has erected a
suitable building thereon, and is now manufacturing
by distillation, a beautiful burning oil from the
material which abounds in the region. The article
described is of a most desirable quality, and its
illumination properties are so great that an
ordinary sized lamp, giving a light of 6 to 8
candles , can be kept burning at the rate of one
quarter cent per hour, reckoning the oil at $1.50
per gallon. We think some of our merchants ought to
procure a supply, for at that rate it must be the. most
economical light in existence. 1

By mid 1858 Williams had clearly been working with a liquid

oil as his raw material, but an important hews article

in 1859 indicates that although working with wells and

naturally available liquid oil he felt that the future

lay with the production of a liquid from a solid as had

been done with coal.

. . . several wells of considerable depth have been
dug, the effect of which has been to collect large
quantities of natural oil without the intervention
of any process such as distillation. It is not
intended to rely, however, upon that source of
supply, but works are in the course of erection
for treating the oil earth after a fashion somewhat
similar to that in which coal is treated .... There
can be no doubt that a far greater yield per centum
of oil will be obtained from the earth than from the
coal, and that consequently, it will be sold at a price
much cheaper than it can now be obtained for. 2

1. Free Press , Dec. 30 , 1858.

2. Free Press, Jan. 27, 1859. In the same article the
problems of deodorization are mentioned. That Williams
should put faith in distilling earth is not surprising.
Recall that Young started with petroleum but it ran out
and he turned to the distillation of coal; Gesner worked
from coal or coal-like material as did many others. In
Collingwood oils were being made from the destructive
distillation of shales.

135

By August of 1859 Williams seems to have placed

his faith in and money on liquid oil from wells as

he was pumping from a 30 foot well and working the oil

on the site. Unfortunately, the historical account is

very brief and confusing. After pumping, the oil "is

then subject to sufficient heat to cause the finer oil

to evaporate, by which means, and a distilling apparatus,

it is prepared for the market. The waste in passing

through this process was about 20 per cent." Just how
this process worked is not clear. Perhaps the crude
was initially heated in open containers to drive off
the light fractions and the remainder distilled, but
this would have been very dangerous. It is possible that
the oil was distilled and then, in what the reporter
calls the "distilling apparatus," actually further
purified but this too is doubtful because Williams
already had equipment in Hamilton for the final pro¬
cess. Probably all that happened in Enniskillen was
a single distillation and the product was separated
into various fractions or cuts . This interpretation is
in harmony with the fact that inil858 the product was
conveyed to Hamilton for processing, apparently for

Free Press, Aug. 5, 1859.

136

preliminary (distilling) and definitely for final
(refining) processing and this was still being done
in early 1860.

Refineries and distilleries had a marked
propensity to burn. In April 1860 a ’’destructive fire”
occurred in Hamilton at ’’the Coal or Earth Oil Manu¬
factory Establishment of J. M. Williams . . . where the raw

earth oil, obtained in the neighbourhood of the township

of Enniskillen is rectified and prepared for use . ..."

Two and a half months later Williams had another fire
this time at Enniskillen when the "still house, for

the preparation of engine oil, was destroyed by fire."
Were it merely mentioned that a still house had burned
Qne might wonder if it actually had been a refinery
but the fact that it was used "for the preparation of
engine oil" indicates that the reporter was not being
careless with his use of technical terms. Engine oil
at that time was not deodorized or clarified but was
just one of the heavier distilled fractions without
treatment beyond distillation. Shortly after the above

1. Observer, April 6, 1860, based on Hamilton Times .

This was the second fire for Williams in two weeks.
Rectification refers to refining not mere distillation

Observer , June 22, 1860.

137

fire an article on the general state of the nascent
oil industry and Williams1 2 work in particular made
it clear that "roasting" was a thing of the past. It
mentions that when Williams came into possession of the
Gum Beds he

thought that there might be oil obtained from the
substance that lay on the surface. He therefore
prepared retorts and began roasting the soil for
the purpose of evaporating the oil from it. In
digging up the soil for this purpose he found that
the oil ran into the sides of the hole. This led
him to further digging, and now ... he has a well
in full operation which supplies as much oil as he
can want . . . pumping the oil into a still on the
ground in which it receives its first refining
process . 1

It should now be clearly established that as early

as 1858 petroleum was being distilled although not

necessarily refined in Enniskillen and that this dis¬
tillation was not only of a liquid but also of a solid
with the former process having completely displaced the
latter by 1860.

The nature of the equipment has not been established.
However, the nature of the processes involved provides
some insight into the equipment. There were two processes

1. Leader , June 30, 1860.

2. That it was being refined in Enniskillen is ex¬
tremely doubtful.

138

at various • times : the roasting and distilling of a

solid and the distillation of a liquid. The equipment

for both is essentially the same. Given the extreme

difficulty of transporting heavy equipment into the

oil fields and the experimental nature of Williams ' work

it is safe to assume that the equipment would be on a

rather small scale and simple. Just how simple and how

primitive is suggested by the comments of the Hamilton

Times on the oil industry prior to 1863.

During this period, "Establishments” of all
capacities, from one or two barrels up to 100
per day were fitted up. Oil stills and their >

whole apparatus were in demand, to the great
profit of those who furnished the "plant" ; that
is, if they were well paid for it. Everyone who
could obtain, either for cash or on credit, such
a thing as a small sized potash kettle , with
another inverted and cemented over it, became a
distiller. There were many "distillers", it
must be remembered, who having neither the means
nor the skill to attempt deodorizing, were content
merely to distill the oil to clearness, selling
for what they could to refineries, who alone
possessed the appliances requisite for the
finishing process. 2

Many of these plants would be on a very small scale
and lack of money was not the only reason that dis¬
tilleries were often made on a rather small scale.

1. The speed, often a matter of days or weeks, with
which early distilleries were repaired and made fully
operational after serious fires suggest small scale #
and simple equipment. It is not to be explained merelv
by saying that the fires were small and of no conse¬
quence. One must also make allowances for errors of

j udgment .

2. Times, Sept. 1, 1865. My italics.

139

M ... owing to the danger of fire, it is not desirable

to build very large works.”

A refinery in Bothwell, built in 1862 or earlier,

and described as "small", contained "two stills, each

of a capacity of five barrels , and will turn out from

25 to 30 barrels of refined oil per week." If the

proprietor, Mr. Brake, was intent only upon producing

an illuminant, as it seems he was, then his product

yield would have been fifty to sixtv per cent of crude

which would mean that on a six dav week his stills were

charged daily. If, on the other hand, Mr. Brake was

recovering all of the possible products his production

figures would indicate that he was charging, i.e. filling,

his stills every two days. Charging everv two days is

close to the 41 hours given by Parson Brothers for a test

refining of 17 barrels of crude Manitoulin Island
3

petroleum. Given the increased distilling time with
the increase in still size Mr. Brake probably

charged his stills every day rather than every two
days. The difference in size between the large and small

Canadian

News ,

Dec .

CN1

1 — 1

1861,

P-

277 .

Canadian

News ,

Dec .

22,

1864,

P-

388.

Canadian

News ,

Jan.

16,

1866 ,

36 .

•

140

refineries was not as marked as some might expect.

Brake's 25 to 30 barrel per week refinery was

regarded as small but in late 1865 Parsons were the

largest in Toronto with 240 barrels per week pro-

duction capacity.

The distilling equipment was very simple. Some¬
thing as simple as two potash kettles should be taken

as no exaggeration as they would do the job for liquid
2

or earth. All that one would need to do is attach a

"worm” or condenser to the top kettle. Attaching the

condenser would be easy because although cast iron

cannot be welded it is easy to drill. Holes could be

drilled or cast into the kettle and to these a flange

and worm bolted. Cementing the two kettles together

would be easy using the recipe or one similar to that

published in the Journal of the Board of Arts and Manu-

factures for Upper Canada.

The simplicity of the distilling equipment is seen

1. Canadian News , Feb. 8 , 1866 , p. 86. Larger plants
were often rumoured but just failed to materialize,
see Canadian News, Nov. 9, 1865, p. 312.

2. It would work with earth as this was oil-soaked earth
and merely an extractive or separatory distillation was
involved with various fractions leaving at their
volatalization temperatures. This is not a process of
destructive distillation although some unintentional
cracking would take place.

"Cement for Joints of Petroleum Stills," Manufactures
for Upper Canada, II (Oct., 1862), 317.

■

141

in the apparatus of Hugh Nixon Shaw. Shaw, before
his death in 1863, had designed and put in use what
was then regarded as the most sophisticated and advanced
distilling equipment in the oil regions. Shaw is repre-

sentative of the small operator in that he was a distiller
working on a small scale and when he died left his family
little or nothing in the way of financial gain to show
for his efforts. He was atypical" in that he was regarded
as the best or a leader in his field and we know some¬
thing about his stills.

The Montreal Co. are about to start 6 of Mr.

Hugh Shaw’s patent stills; the latter is re¬
ported being able to refine about 8 barrels per
day. Messrs. Liddell and Sherman and Mr. S. H.
Smith have each one of Hugh Shaw's patent re¬
finers, which distil about two barrels each dav.

The oil is not deodorized but merely distilled, and
Mr. Shaw claims that he is able by once running the
vapor through the worm more completely to rid it
of all explosive elements than bv other processes
employed. His stills are like two sugar kettles
placed upon one another, forming together like an
iron globe. From the top or rather that portion of
the globe which is made to be a top, rises a pipe
connected with the worm. Before the vapour
can enter this pipe from the retort, it has to pass
through two wire meshes ; the first of iron and the
second of brass, both very fine, but the latter
much the finer of the two. By this means Mr. Shaw
contends he retains many impurities, in the retort,
which otherwise would be carried into the oil. The
vapour when condensed passes in the ordinary wav
into the vessels prepared for its reception, but
the benzole is separated from it by an ingenious

There are those who claimed that he drilled the
first gusher. I see no evidence for such a claim.

142

contrivance. Through the upper surface of the
pipe which conveys the distilled oil from the worm
to the vessel prepared for its reception, a hole
is cut into which a second pipe is let at right
angles and carried through the roof into the open
air. Out of this second pipe the oil cannot pass --
it falls into the cistern through the hole below --
but the benzole being lighter than the atmosphere,
rises in the pipe, and gains the outside. By this
method 50% of the illuminating oil is gained; but
the remaining 50% is all .lost.

The waste is by no means necessary, as by observing
certain conditions 93 parts of every hundred may
be turned to account. When this is done Mr. Shaw
proves he gains 2% benzole, 22% of spirits of
petroleum (another name for the benzole which he
saves, and which may be used for all purposes to
which turpentine is applied) 50% of the illuminating
oil, 20% of lubricating oil, and the refuse, the
remaining 6% may be converted into asphaltum, or
be made to render up the Mauve, Majenta, and azure
dyes it contains . 1

The description, as far as it goes, is clear enough
and needs little further comment. The vent pipe (the
"second pipe") is a common feature in distilleries
during the 1860s and the nature of the product lost
through it would depend on the extent to which the
vapours had cooled and condensed prior to reaching that
point. The vapours were cooled by water cooling, the
only workable solution. The product yield of 50% is

Globe, Mar. 12, 1862. The Observer , May 20, 1862,
mentions the destruction bv fire of the Shaw
refinery; only three of the stills were damaged.

143

that for the pursuit of a single product with the
increased yield coming with no increase in illuminating
oil products. Greater yield is simply the result of
retaining that which was previously wasted. Although
no details are given explicitly, the increased yields
would be the result of two separate actions. The first
is simply cleaning out and keeping rather than cleaning
out and throwing out the refuse and heavy (lubricating)
oil left in the bottom of the still after distillation.
The second step would be one of the following two
alternatives. Effectively increasing the cooling
capacity and closing off the vent pipe would cause the
benzole and spirits of petroleum to condense with the
illuminating oil, a solution which although workable
would necessitate a second distillation to produce a
safe illuminant. It is therefore likely that Shaw would
have retained the second pipe. But instead of allowing
its contents free access to the atmosphere the vent
pipt would lead to a condenser which would produce liquid
benzole and spirits of petroleum. Another reason for
believing that Shaw would have used the latter of these
two alternatives was his concern with getting the ex¬
plosive (volatile) elements out of the illuminating oil.

As regards capacity the description of the Shaw

I Z '

apparatus is helpful but not unambiguous. The
apparatus is not a continuous charge one and would
have to be cleaned and given time to cool before
recharging lest a fire or explosion be the result. It
is safe to assume one run per day and a l1^ to 2 barrel
capacity per still.

There is still much to be learned about Shaw’s
stills. Neither the type of fuel nor the mode of
heating is known. The shape of the still is not known;
the bottom might have been truly hemispherical or still
smoothly curved for easier cleaning but somewhat
flattened for more even heat distribution. Nor is it
known whether the stills were bricked in for a more
even heat distribution and longer lasting bottoms.

Most perplexing are the iron and copper meshes.
Neither the type of impurities nor the mode of
operation or theory behind it are given. Clearly he
did not have in mind physically separable impurities
such as twigs , leaves and grit as the meshes are
passed by a vapour and not by a liquid and only the
latter would transport impurities of this tvpe.

Perhaps Shaw felt that some chemical reaction or
physical adherence of the foul smelling impurities
would take place at the meshes but this seems unlikely
as , according to one report, the ’’oil is not deodorized

145

but merely distilled." There is a plausible ex¬
planation. Shaw might have seen the wire meshes as
a safety measure. The wire meshes might have been
cool enough to condense some of the heavier hydrocar¬
bons on their surfaces thereby preventing them from
entering the condenser. He would want to do this be¬
cause amongst the heavier hydrocarbons were the
paraffins which could solidify in and block the con¬
denser. A blocked condenser or worm was 'an explosive
situation .

Shaw’s still was patented but the patent itself
and the application for it are not informative as
regards the theory of operation. However, Shaw’s
hopes and work provide insight into the need for
innovation and the problems and frustrations of pio¬
neering technologists in a new industry. In a letter
of Nov. 16, 1861, from his lawyer and filed with the
patent, Shaw is said to have had a "view to introduce
it in h'is refinery about being erected." Shaw believed
that his invention was the means to purify as well
as simply distil.

Patent Office Archives, Ottawa, Canada Patent Number
1308, granted H. N. Shaw of Cooksville, in the
County of Peel, for "An Improved Dome Petroleum
Separator." Quebec, dated 16th December, 1861.

Patfe5.°Hk?8^?h^’T^f

aw a

Department of Agriculture

14 6

My invention consists in the construction of an
apparatus for separating and refining petroleum,
and removing all inflammable properties without
the use of chemicals, by constructing a still
with a dome, in the mouth of which are placed two
or more perforated diaphragms , the perforations
in each of which are finer than those in the one
immediately below it .... By this means the
Agitator now used for' washing the oil is rendered
unnecessary, and the use, as at present, of
chemicals, in the refining process which injure the
lubricating properties of the oil, is dispensed
with, while the oil itself retains a much greater
body and is consequently of greater value than oils
distilled by the means now used.l

How quickly he must have been disappointed as were many

others. Shaw’s "Dome Petroleum Separator" was a fine

still but no refinery. The patent drawing shows the

side and bottom of the ’still’ meeting at an angle of

slightly over 90° and one can only hope that a founder

Gr boilermaker advised him that the junction should

be rounded for more even heat distribution and easier

cleaning .

There is little more that can be said about the
equipment for small-scale distillation until further
material is found. There is, however, more to say
about the small distiller. Not all of the "small" men
were content to remain as distillers and some ventured

Patent Office Archives, Ottawa, Canada Patent
Number 1308.

147

into rather chequered refining careers, two aspects
of which are to be examined here: financial and
technical .

There was a tradition of small distilling and/or
refining companies each of which although unique were
united by common bonds of small size, low budget, and
near bankruptcy. They often drifted into bankruptcy,
only to pop up again with new partners and/or name only
to again feel the pressure of elements such as larger,
more efficient, and less debt-ridden companies. A
reduced tax assessment was one of the means that small
companies sought in order to fight bankruptcy, particu¬
larly after their periodic fires, explosions and other
disasters. These characteristics and the vicissitudes
of small companies are best illustrated by following
a few individuals .

On March 13, 1862 it was announced that two oil

partnerships in Sarnia were changing their composition

by mutual consent. Harrison 0. Wood and Thomas Miles

of Smith, Wood and Miles, oil refiners, were leaving

E'rastus Smith to run the refinery. E. Smith, perhaps

the same Erastus Smith, was leaving another companv in

fhe hands of R. S. Chalmers and A. McLagen. One week later

Observer , Mar. 13, 1863.

148

a serious accident occured at the Monitor Oil
Works here, by which Mr. H. 0. Wood, of the late
firm of Smith, Wood and Miles, got the first and
second fingers of his right hand so much injured
as to render amputation necessary. While the steam
engine, which turns the agitator was in motion, Mr.
Wood, in cleaning off the dust from some part of
the machinery, had his hands drawn into some part
of the gearing. The obstruction caused the machine
to stop, the steam pressure being low at the time,
otherwise the accident must have been serious. 1

Mr. Wood was not given much time to lament his fate as

the following month he was in court fighting a law suit.

Mr. Wood was not alone in his troubles. The previously

mentioned Chalmers and McLagen, calling themselves R. S.

Chalmers and Company had managed to have two fires at

3 4

their refinery one of which caused $700 damage. Smith

hired the law firm of Mackenzie and Gurd to sell his

1. Observer , Mar. 20, 1863.

2. Observer , April 24, 1864.

3* Observer , Mar. 27, 1863 and Observer , April 24, 1863.

4. E. Smith claimed to be living in Oil Springs.

The Lambton Gazetteer for 1864 did not list him
as a resident but this is probably because he did
not buy advertising space in the Gazetteer. George
Smith, without whose help this thesis could not
have been written, warned me of the danger of
relying on the Gazetteer . Although he described
it in terms totally unsuitable for inclusion in
this thesis I take the liberty of translating his
words to read "notoriously unreliable". George
Smith is not a descendant of E. Smith.

149

refinery "at a great bargain and upon easy terms.”

It is possible that Smith was more interested in having

his taxes lowered than in selling his refinery. The

Sarnia Township Council reduced his assessment from

$1,000 to $600. Two years later Mackenzie and Curd

were still or again trying to sell his refinery but •

there is no evidence of further tax reductions for
4

Smith .

After being out of the news for some' time Chalmers
and McLagen emerged with a new refinery which was the

1. Observer , July 22, 1864. The refinery is described
as follows: "Situated in the Township of Sarnia on
the River St. Clair, located midwav between the
Grand Trunk and Grest Western Railway stations.

Said refinery has two 18 barrel stills, a 20 barrel
agitator, ten horsepower steam engine, with every
convenience for manufacturing oil. The refinery

is so located that it can easily be supplied with
either Canadian or Pennsylvania crude oil . ...”

2. Observer , Oct. 14, 1864. See Observer , Oct. 15, 1866
For another example of reducing the tax assessment
for a refinery, this time for one that had suffered

a fire.

3. Observer , Aug. 20, 1866.

4. It was not only the small refiners who asked for,
received, and were aided bv tax concessions. Much
of the history of oil refining in the Lambton area
in the nineteenth century is a story of tax reduc¬
tions, exemptions and other bargains. Imperial Oil
was not above such measures.

150

site of two explosions in less than a month. These

explosions undoubtedly irritated Messrs. Cameron and

Bryce, the occupants of the dwellings next to which

Chalmers and McLagen had erected their refinery. Cameron

and Bryce, having no respect for the fine odiferous

traditions being established in the Sarnia region and

which survive to this day, petitioned Council and then

the Courts complaining about the oil refinery only to

be told that admittedly refineries were a nuisance but

one of a special kind -- "a necessary nuisance, the good

outweighing the bad.11

Not all of the problems faced by the small dis¬
tillers and/or refiners were financial, many were
3

technical. The diary of John H. Fairbank for the period
4

1862-64 provides first hand information and insight into
the life of an oil producer and refiner operating on a

1. Observer , Oct. 22, 1869 and Observer , Nov. 5, 1869.

2. Observer , Mar. 5, 1869.

3. This is not to say that many were not both; an

m unwanted explosion and fire is a technical pro¬

blem but would also generate a financial one: finding
funds to rebuild.

4. This is the only period for which his diary has
survived and there are no entries for many days. Mr.

Ed. Phelps, Regional History Librarian, Lawson
Library, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario,
and I have Xerox copies of his diary. [Hereinafter
referred to as Diary].

151

rather small scale and frequently very close to

financial disaster. The diary, at present unpublished,
is a record of frustration, uncertainty, worry and
physical hardship. The diary sneaks for itself and is
worth quoting in extenso as an aid to understanding and
illustrating some of the problems faced by men such as
J. H. Fairbank.

At work at refinery at treating room. Still not
runn. (20 Sept., 1862)

Up late. (1 Oct., 1862)

At work at refinery set agitator shafts etc ....
Blains horses would not work horsepower. Agitator
leaked and devil to pay generally .... Eakins took
out pipe from well, not pumping to-day, got
bearing made by wheelright. Blains team took one
load (5 bbls.) to refinery. (8 Oct., 1862)

At blacksmiths helping to make inside supports for
bottom bearing of agitator shaft. (9 Oct., 1862)

Raining like mischief all day, made corduroy road
for horsepower, got very wet and muddy. (10 Oct.,
1862)

Allens tanks burnt last night fought fire and
watched till Sh a.m. (30 Oct., 1862)

Went over to refinery, thence down to look for
barrels , running around all day accomplished
but little. (6 Nov., 1862)

Collecting barrels and barrling oil all day. At
refinery all night. (7 Nov., 1862)

It is hoped that the Diary will be published bv
mid 1973.

152

Saw Shaw peddling oil he is a big ass , would do
a smashing business at selling molasses, candy
and peanuts ye gods , what money he would make at
training dogs. (13 Nov., 1862)

Was at Refinery seeking for a team none to be
had both Kings teams at home 1 sick 1 waggon
broken. (20 Nov., 1862)

Didn’t treat cause lazy teamsters. (22 Nov., 1862)

Out early after team got one at last too late to
work. (1 Dec., 1862)

Colder than thunder everything froze up still not
run . ( 6 Dec . , 1862)

Rather quiet Christmas minus turkey and "such like".

At work in mud and oil all day , such is Enniskillen.
Received nothing from somebody, gave something to
nobody, total 0. (25 Dec., 1862)

damned by every luck no cash. (26 Dec., 1862)

a year of hard work and small returns. (31 Dec., 1862)

John scadeddled at rain. (10 Jan., 1863)

devil to pay generally. (21 Jan., 1863)

Poor Mr. H. N. Shaw drowned in his well to-day. In
him I have lost one of my best friends in Enniskillen.

A good man and most obliging neighbour. Sad, sad,
sad calamity. (11 Feb., 1863)

Borrowed carboy acid. (10 Feb., 1863)

chemicals not arrived. (20 Feb., 1863)

telegram from Abner "Come home immediately your
wife very ill" .... Heaven preserve my poor wife.

(14 March, 1863)

At work at pump no go. The devil is in it.

(26 June, 1863)

Finished coopering crude oil barrels filled some
with tar. (3 July, 1863)

153

Went down to corners and hunted crazv man until
1 a.m'. (S July, 186 3)

Put up new spring pole. (8 Aug., 1863)

The Sarnia hounds made a dead set on me with a
hellish plot; but failed "the dog is ahead"

(21 Aug . , 1863)

Altered pump. (25 Aug., 1863)

Refused $600 for H oil and lot interest perhaps
very foolish. (31 Aug.,' 1863)

Pump out of order took up both valves. (12 Jan.,

1864)

Looking all over for inch gas pipe. (28 Jan., 1864)

Set men to dipping oil from creek. (5 Feb., 1864)

Old "Weasel skin" took up his seed bag and deluged
the lower world with water. (19 Oct., 1864)

Run still. Fichit away nearly all dav , about as
miserable a day as I ever put in, run till dark
and quite fully resolved that I won’t run a damned
leaky old kettle that acts as if it would "go up"
any minute for love or money — don’t want to be¬
come as nervous as old made, and feel like a coward
all the time. I’m down on the thing and wont stand
it any way. Can stand work as well as any one but
dam a leaky still, them’s my sentiments. (18 Oct., 1862)

As was the case with many of his fellow refiners and

distillers J. H. Fairbank did not stav a small operator.

Some did not last, leaving no richer and perhaps poorer

than when they started, but others became big operators.

Fairbank did no leave the oil business but expanded and

diversified his business interests. Although he did not

stay in refining, he made a considerable fortune as a

154

producer and shipper of oil as well as in other

business ventures associated with the production of

oil and the growth of an oil town. Although Fairbank

did not invest heavily in refining there were men of the

high financial status that he was to achieve who were

investing in the oil regions at the time when he was a

struggling entrepreneur vowing " ... I won’t run a

damned leaky old kettle that acts as if it would Mgo

up” any minute for love or money . ...”

When James Miller Williams started refining he
was neither new to the world of business nor was he a
pauper. However, Williams was apparently not refining
in Enniskillen and the first ’large’ scale refinery,
probably the first refinery, in Enniskillen was that
which began operation in Petrolia in August 1861. The
refinery was built by the Petrolia Refinery Company, a
company which was composed principally of Bostonians
and was therefore sometimes referred to as the Boston
Company or a Boston company. One of the leading investors

— 1. A biographical study of J. H. Fairbank is to be

found at the University of Western Ontario. Edward
Phelps, John Henrv Fairbank of Petrolia (1831-1914) ;
a Canadian Entrepreneur (unpublished M.A. thesis ,
University of Western Ontario, 1965).

Diary , Oct. 18, 1862.

155

was a Mr. Adams of Boston who came to live in Enniskillen

and so the refinery was sometimes referred to as Adams’

refinery, a source of confusion because there was also

an English firm -- A. A. Adams and Co. It is perhaps
only logical that a company from Boston should invest
in a refinery in Petrolia as Boston and Hamilton were

the two original refining centres for Enniskillen crude.

The cost of the refinery is variouslv given as 611,000
4

or $10,000. Either figure represents no mean sum when

compared to other refineries .

There are two extant descriptions of the Petrolia

Refinery Company works and its operation; neither of these.

give a complete description or one in which it is apparent

that the author fully understands what is going on. Using
the two descriptions it is possible to begin building a

1. See Globe , Sept. 12, 1861 and Globe , Mar. 12, 1862.

2. Hunt, "Notes on Petroleum,” pp. 248-249.

3. Globe , Sept. 12, 1861.

4. Globe , June 21, 1861.

~ 5 . Globe, June 25, 1861 and Globe , Sept. 12, 1861.

There are several reasons why the accounts are
confused and incomplete. Many of the reporters,
particularly at this time, were not familiar with
a refinery and did not know how it should work and
what it was to do. Refinery operators were loath
to give out information which might be of interest
to competitors .

156

composite picture of part of the physical plant.

Contrary to present refinery practice, all buildings
were of wood. The still house was 40 by 34 feet and
contained 6 stills: 3 on each side of the building. The'
stills, presumably of boiler plate but perhaps cast,
each had a capacity of 15 barrels of oil and were built
into strong high brick cylinders. Outside the still
house was an elevated tank 16 feet in diameter and 7
feet deep; from this tank the stills were filled by
gravity flow. Outside the still house were ”6 tall, band¬
like tanks, 3 on each side of the building [still-house]
standing in a direct line with the stills: from each

still-head there runs into each of these vessels an iron

pipe, connecting with a worm in the vessel.” The worm(s)
emerge from near the bottom of these cold water filled
tanks or vessels. On the end of the worm is a cock and a
small iron pipe running vertically for 8 or 10 feet. The
pipe is the vent through which the gas escapes as oil
trickles out of the cock. From these cocks are iron
pipes leading to what is described as an immense, per¬
fectly water-tight tank which is made in two divisions
and has been sunk into the yard.

Globe, June 25, 1861.

157

To add more to the description is rather diffi¬
cult because the two accounts conflict. The reason
for such a state of affairs is unfortunate but not
surprising. The equipment was sophisticated and new
to newspaper reporters and editors , most of whom did
not understand what happened in a refinery. Refinery
owners and operators, often convinced that they had at
last hit upon the ’secret' of successful refinings were
loath to let reporters into the works . Reporters were
often deliberately given false information, shown only
part of the processes or in other ways had information
withheld. It is not surprising that very few knew what
was going on inside the refineries.

When the stills were cool some type of valves
or stop cocks would be opened and the stills would be
filled or ’charged1 from the elevated crude tank. The
stills would be fired, the temperature of the crude
would rise and various fractions, beginning with what
were called benzoles , would distill off and be
conveyed to the worm which descended through a cold

158

water tank. During the passage through the worm, and

depending on various factors such as the rate of vapour

flow, some of the vapours would liquify and be conveved •
to the storage tank. Other vapours would remain uncon¬
densed and be conducted up the vent pipe and escape into
the atmosphere. To this point all that has been per¬
formed is a distillation not differing in its essentials
from that described as being carried out in the Shaw
equipment .

Returning to the description of the physical plant,
it is to be noted that the underground tank was in two
parts and "as the distilled oil runs in from the stills
into the first division a close watch is kept, and the

1. The Globe , June 25 , 1861 states that ’’from each
still-head there runs into each of these vessels an
iron pipe, connecting with a worm in the vessel."

It is not clear whether we have each still head
connected to only one pipe and to one worm or to 6
pipes and 6 worms, i.e. every worm being connected
to every still-head. That the latter was the case
seems doubtful, too complicated with too many places
for leaks and breaks ; on the other hand some form of
such a system would have a certain advantage as it would
allow, say, the use of 3 stills and 6 cooling tanks

and worms .

2. The greater the percentage of vapours liquified the
greater the percentage yield and the greater the
theoretical profits. Liquifying the lighter fractions
will give an illuminating oil with a lower flash point
and of greater potential danger to the customer. This
applies to all products but is more crucial with a
lighting oil.

-•

159

quality of the oil is observed. The moment any

defect in the oil is noticed it is conveyed into the

second division and again put through the still." The

defects would be those of colour and clarity; the oil

should be of a clear amber colour or lighter. A lack

of clarity or darkening of colour would, depending on '

the judgment of the operator, be cause for confinement

to the second division and redistillation. Here the

two accounts differ somewhat and should be looked at

separately. Although rather long the remainder of these

two descriptions merit quotation in their entirety.

After distillation the oil is pumped up into a
leaded tank, in which works an agitator, in shape
resembling a circular fan. Four steam pipes go
round the tank, bv means of which the oil is treated.
This process, it is presumed, is intended completely
to rid the oil of benzole, though upon that point, as
upon many others connected with the refining, very
definite information was not supplied. From the
agitating vats the oil is conveyed into a tank of
similar capacity and is there allowed to settle.

Lastly, by means of syphons, leaving the sediment
behind it, it is drawn off into the "treating"
vats. These vats contain water, through which the
oil passes, and in so doing clears itself of all
remaining impurities. From a dirty dark green, with
an odious smell, it is then converted into a light
yellow liquid, with a strong, but not unpleasant odour.

1. Globe , June 25, 1861.

2. It should be noted that this description serves for
the production of a lighting oil only. Much of what
was pumped into the second division for redistillation
would have served as a lubricating oil if such were
desired.

3. Globe, Sept. 12, 1861.

160

The oil in the first division undergoes a pre¬
paration through two vats placed in a small
building close at hand, and is subsequently taken
to the deodorizing house, in which stands 6 very
handsome vats. These vats are 2 feet deep each, and
about 9 feet, 6 inches in diameter, handsomely
painted on the outside and on the inside as smooth as
glass. The oil, after passing through these vats,
is ready for the market. 1

The two accounts simply do not coincide nor does either

one make sense or sound complete in itself. The two

differing accounts do not lend themselves to the creation

of a composite picture of the physical layput of the

refinery beyond that which has been given. One reporter

knew what the refiners were doing:

the oil refiners generally talk a great deal of
nonsense about the method they have of treating
the oil after it is passed through the still, for
the purpose of further purifving and deodorizing
it . 2

He should have added that many refiners regarded their

methods as being secret and went out of their way to

prevent others from learning the full story.

To complete the description of the physical plant

Qne need only mention the tall brick chimney and the
power sources. One account mentions that a ”20 horse¬
power oscillating steam engine gives motion to the

Globe ,

June

25,

1861.

Globe ,

Mar .

12,

1862 .

Globe ,

June

25,

1861.

161

machinery employed." The same description of the
refinery makes it clear that the engine was used for
pumping the oil to the agitation tank, running the
agitator, and perhaps filling the elevated tank with
crude. In the other account the only power source men¬
tioned is that for pumping water.

A large quantity of water is used in the prepara¬
tion of the oil; the water is obtained from a
creek and pumped up by a 15 horsepower engine, a
height of some 20 feet. 2

The production capacity was given as 3,600 gallons

daily with all six stills in operation "but as it is not

possible to keep the whole constantly at work, the average

will necessarily be somewhat less."

After the crude had been distilled the distillate
needed chemical treatment. Refiners were reluctant to
discuss the topic of chemical treatment and gave it an
aura of secrecy blended with misinformation. The reporter
who accused the refiners of talking a great deal of nonsense
knew what happened in some refineries.

1. Globe, Sept. 12, 1861.

2. Globe, June 25, 1861. For the problem of obtaining
water see Globe , Sept. 2, 1861.

3. Globe, Sept. 12, 1861. Using a barrel of 40 gallons
production would be 90 barrels per day which would
mean that each still were charged daily. This seems
rather fast work. The Toronto Board of Trade rated
this refinery as producing 300 barrels per week from

5 stills. See "Petroleum", Board of Trade, 1862, p. 35.

162

The oil, after having been passed through the
still, is conveyed from the cistern into which it
falls , to a square tank. Inside this tank is an
agitator, a sort of huge chocolate mill, which,
being twisted around rapidly be means of steam power,
vindicates its name. While in this tank, from 3 to 4%
of sulphuric acid (common Vitriol) and of muriatic
acid are added, and the whole well mixed up together- by
the agitator. To rid it of the acid, the oil is after¬
wards '’washed” or passed through a lye made of one.
pound of caustic of soda to. 5 gallons of water . Some
makers use little more than 1% or sulphuric acid.l

There are numerous references to sulphuric acid and caustic

soda but this is one of the few references that I have seen

to muriatic acid.

Dr. T. Sterry Hunt is far less articulate in this

respect .

The process of refining consists in rectifying bv
repeated distillations , by which the oil is separated
into a heavier part employed for lubricating machinery,

■ and a lighter oil, which after being purified and
deodorized by a peculiar treatment with sulphuric acid,
is fit for burning in lamps . 2

Fortunately, as the 1860s progressed more information
about refining and refinery construction became available.
The oil industry was still exciting but less glamorous and
more mature. Newspaper reporters and editors were beginning
to understand what they were writing about and refiners,
realizing that most of them were using almost identical
equipment and processes, became less concerned with secrecy.

1. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

Hunt, "Notes on Petroleum," p. 249.

163

Some descriptions continued to hint at rather than

describe layout and operation. Mr. Duffield’s new

London works was described as having

two stills, of thirty two barrels each and con¬
taining forty gallons each to the barrel, being
constructed by Mr. Thomas Brown, of the City
Boiler Works . . . over twelve hundred gallons of
refined oil will be turned out ter dav .... There
is a steam engine on the premises , of five horse¬
power, made by Mr. T. Northey, of Hamilton ....

There are six bleachers or tubs for cooling the
unctious liquid, and the specimens we saw on the spot,
combining burning and lubricating oil, seemed clear
and transparent, and we have no doubt will obtain a
ready sale.l

The mention of the bleachers is important as it is the
first reference to them but so much is not answered even
in this regard, particularly how long the oil is left in
them and how they were constructed. It was in these that
final settling and clarification was to take place.

Descriptions such as the above simply do not allow
one to judge the technical sophistication of the refiners
and none of the descriptions are fully adequate in this
respect. However, in early 1863 the first good description
of a Canadian refinery appeared. The refinery was in
Toronto. As with other refineries to be dealt with
beyond this point, edited but somewhat lengthy quotations
will be followed by commentary. The first to be dealt

Canadian News , Sept. 18, 1862, p. 183.

164

with is that of Messrs. Duncan and
Street in Toronto, one-time barrel
presently working ’’the largest oil
vince" with an expected production

Clark of Colborne
makers in Enniskillen
refinery in the pro¬
of 12,000 gallons

(300 barrels of 40 gallons) per week.

The manufactory is situated on the banks of the
"classic" Don and extends ■ over a considerable space
of ground. The barrels containing the crude oil, on
being brought from the depot, are placed in the yard
at the foot at two large cylindrical iron tanks , capa¬
ble of holding 4,000 gallons. These tanks are
supported upon timber uprights , about twenty feet
high. The barrels are expeditiously and easily lifted
up by means of a frame and pulleys , and their contents
poured into the tanks. The object gained in raising
the tanks at so great an elevation is that the oil by
its own gravity flows into the stills, which are near
by. Two substantial bbick buildings, each 40 feet by
16 feet, contain the stills, placed in a row upon one
side; and upon the other, but divided from them bv a
wall, are the tubs containing the worms for condensation.
Altogether there are eight stills -- one of 50 bbls . , four]
of 35 bbls. and three of 15 bbls. each. The oil from
the tanks before mentioned runs down into the stills,
where it is subjected to the ordinary process. Messrs.
Duncan and Clark, however, mix with it a chemical,
which prevents it throwing off an offensive odour, so
that their refinery is free from any other noisome
smell than that which is given off from the crude oil
lying in various tanks. When the heat if first applied,
a very light oil, highly charged with benzine, is first
developed, which, being useless for illuminating pur¬
poses , is conveyed by pipes to a cistern outside the
distillery, sunk deep into the ground. Over the
cistern is placed a small tub, into which the oil
is raised, as occasion requires, by means of a hand
pump. From the tub it is conducted to the furnace
underneath the stills. Each furnace is supplied
with an iron pan eighteen inches or two feet square
and about five inches deep, into which the oil runs,
and, being lighted, supplies sufficient heat for the
distilling process. The heavy oil, likewise useless
for illuminating purposes, is utilised in the same
way. The tar, which is left at the bottom of the
stills, is also burned as fuel, so that. no part of the

165

crude oil, except that which passes awav in gas,
is wasted. As the building containing the still
is most exposed to catch fire, every precaution has
been taken against the calamity of a conflagration.

The gas is carried into the air by pipes , and the
whole of the wood-work about, the roofs included,
has been coated with Montgomery’s anti-f lammable
preparation, a manufactory of which has recently
been erected in Toronto. Crossing over the yard,
which is covered with barrels -- some empty, others
full of oil, we pass into the main building, about
150 feet long by 35 wide and two stories high. Eight
pipes, one coming from each still, are conveyed
under the ground, and discharge their contents into
four tanks; one of which is capable of holding 100
barrels, another 50 barrels, and the other two 16
barrels each. From these tanks the oil is pumped
out into a large cylindrical treating tank. At the
bottom of this tank is placed a huge "chocolate mill,"
which, being forced round quickly by steam-power,
agitates the oil and mixes the chemicals necessary
to its thorough purification. While in this tank it
undergoes thirteen or fourteen distinct washings. Two
treating tanks are employed by Messrs. Duncan and
Clark, the largest of which has a capacity of 25
barrels. The smaller one will hold only 12 barrels,
but it is to be replaced by one of a capacity of 30
barrels. In this part of the building is an immense
tank, holding 40 tons of water. It is kept constantly
full by the engine below, and supplies the water for
the condensing apparatus attached to the stills. Much
of the water used in washing the oil has to be heated;
this is done by steam. It is also the intention of
the owners to heat the whole building by means of
steam pipes, as the intense cold causes the oil to
congeal and somewhat impedes operations. From the
heating tank the oil is conveyed to the bleaching
vats, six of which, each capable of holding 300 barrels,
stand in a row. Here it is allowed to settle;
impurities which have not been washed out by the
agitator find their way to the bottom, and the oil
is run off into barrels of 40 gallons each for the
market. The building and everything about has been
covered with the anti-inflammable compound before
mentioned. The process of manufacture used by Messrs.
Duncan and Clarke is one of the simplest .... Though
not in full working order, they are turning out a

166

great deal of oil every week, for which they
find an ample market. The large number of
barrels piled up in the yard and two large tanks
in course of' construction capable of holding about
24,000 gallons of oil attest the extent of the
business they expect to carry on; and we see no
reason to fear that they will be disappointed. The
cost of the refinery will be about $12,000.1

One of the features which should be noted is the consi¬
derable hand labour involved. Unloading and raising
barrels for emptying was a hand operation and the use of
hand pumping is also mentioned with no mention of steam
power pumping for other than water.

There was much emphasis on safety by separating
buildings, presumably to minimize loss in event of fire,
fire-proofing, and some ground storage - although it was
only the very dangerous light oil used as fuel that was
stored in the ground. The use of underground lines was
probably a measure of convenience as well as safety. The
fact that they were using light oil, heavy oil, and tar
as fuel is significant but not surprising, an economy
measure to be expected in an urban centre such as Toronto
with its high wood prices. Not surprisingly, the plant
was directed towards the production of one rather than
a number of saleable products. The entire description
is permeated by a general vagueness and imprecision which

Canadian News, Jan. 29, 1863, p. 75.

167

reaches its. height in the almost complete lack of
information regarding the chemicals and chemical pro¬
cesses used. The shortcomings of the description are
not entirely unexpected. The refiners still had a few
secrets to keep. The processes of chemical treatment
were complicated and the general newspaper reader was
probably not interested in them.

One refinery in Oil Springs was regarded by the
Oil Springs Chronicle as "one of the best in the country."

It contained "a splendid oscillating engine" and "a fine

large agitator, with a patent bellows attachment." No
purpose was given for the bellows ; it was probably used
to pump air into the agitator to increase its effectiveness.

It is not until 1866 and 1867 that one finds something
resembling a first rate description of a refinery, both
are from the pen of Alexander Somerville. In 1866
Somerville described himself as "One who is interested
in the Place" , and in his first article discussed the
Canada Rock Oil Company of the Montreal firm David
Torrance and Co.

The estate on which the refinery stands measures
fifty acres .... This is the only elevated dry
land which I have seen on either side of Main-
street, and that thoroughfare is three miles long ....
The entire management — financial, architectural,

Canadian News, Jan. 19, 1865, p. 39. Based on Oil
Springs Chronicle.

168

mechanical, and chemical -- has been committed
to ah eminently competent gentleman, Mr. James
Lockhart. So also the sinking of five wells
on another estate of the company .... These
works , in most of their parts original and as
a while unique and without a rival in perfect
adaptability to the purposes aimed at, were
evolved from his own ingenious mind .... The
excellence of the tie roads on this estate, as
compared with other traffic courses about Oil
Springs village, first attracts a. stranger’s
notice. In these sound smooth roads is seen the
first sign of a systematic business.

The most conspicuous object here is the
treating-house , a building one hundred and ten
feet long, forty feet high. The next is a
square brick chimney, forty-five feet high,
distant from the treating-house about sixtv yards
east. Four or five yards on the west side of
the brick chimney is a row of ten stills, each
resembling the body of a railway engine, elevated
from the ground about eight feet, raised above
a furnace and enclosed in walls of fire-brick,
only the rounded back and sides of the still being
visible. One has a capacity for eighteen barrels,
three for thirty barrels each, one for thirty-
five, one for forty-five, and four for sixty-five
barrels each.

They are six tanks underground, having
capacity for six hundred barrels. A hatchway
above each may be lifted to look down. For me
one brief glance into the only one of them was
enough ....

In commencing to construct the refinery, the
first thing requisite was to obtain a copious
supply of water by sinking a well. It was found
here in abundance. Nowhere else about Oil Springs
is there such another fountain of pellucid water.
During the winter just past, half the houses and
most of the hotels of the town were supplied from
this well. A York shilling a barrel was charged ...
to defray expense of fuel for the engine and for
wages of the attendants. The refinery not having
been then in operation, the well would have been
closed .... The absence of clear water everywhere
else about Oil Springs gives the Canada Rock
Company a pre-eminent advantage in producing the
purest translucent oil for illuminating purposes.

169

There are three steam engines supplied
by steam from one boiler, which is situated be¬
side the tall brick chimney. One at the well,
distant from the boiler about twenty yards ; the
steam rushes to its service through an iron pipe.

The second pumps oil at the stills. The third
is in the treating-house; it raises distilled oil
to the tanks on the second floor, to be washed by
the water which descends from the floor above. It
also drives the rotary egitators , which plunge
in the tanks mingling oil and water together in
the process of washing; afterwards oil and sulphuric
acid in the process of deodorising. A glance at
the intervening space of sixty yards between the
stills and the treating-house suggests the idea
of the house being anchored to the earth by a
series of iron rods an inch and a half in diameter.
They look like guys thrown out to keep it steadv.
These are iron tubes. One conducts steam in verv
cold weather to the water tank at the top of the
house, and to the oil tanks on the second floor,
to raise the temperature and keep the liquids in
working condition. Another conducts heavy oil
back to the stills for redistillation. The steam
to the engine within the house goes through an
underground pipe. We shall arrive at the uses of
the others presently.

Let us begin with the crude oil . . . brought
from wells ... by barrels, waggons, horses; it is
emptied into an underground tank. The engine power
which draws water from the well is applied and
pumps this oil from the underground reservoir to a
tank raised eight or ten feet above the ground and
situated out on an open space by itself clear of
all other buildings. From this elevated tank, its
size eight or nine feet on the side, five feet
deep, a series of pipes convey the crude liquid
and distribute it to whichever of the six under¬
ground tanks it may be required, to convey it. From
these it is raised by engine power and distributed
by pipes into the different stills. The stills,
when sufficiently filled, are hermetically closed
and the furnace "fires lighted underneath. Delicate
thermometrical instruments indicate degrees of heat.
At about five hundred degrees vapour begins to boil
off. The petroleum is boiled to six hundred degrees.
At that heat all goes off in vapour but the coal
tar; having no other vent, the vapour passes through
the iron pipes which conduct it to the condensers.

170

These are circular tanks eighteen feet diameter,
open at the top, within which the pipes from
the stills are coiled round and round and. inter-
laced so as to expose the largest possible sur¬
face to the action of cold water. This flows
copiously in from the pump well and escapes to
a drain less or more heated. By the lower tempera¬
ture of the cold water the vapour within the
coil is condensed to oil. The various pipes
deliver their contents into one tank. From this
receptacle the finer and lighter portion of the
fluid is drawn off into another tank, and by a
force pump sent through one of the pipes across
the sixty yards of interval already notified,
poured into a general receiver on the ground floor
of the treating-house, then raised bv steam pump
to the second floor and distributed in several
tanks. The heavier portion of the fluid is "run
to ground," that is, it is run into an underground
tank, to be pumped up into the still and boiled
until it becomes vapour, to be again condensed
and in turn "treated" in the house like that
which went before it. This heavy oil, without
being redistilled, would be a good lubricator for
machinery if there was a market of demand; but
here the company prefer to distil and redistil
so long as oil can be extracted. The first gross
residuum is coal tar. That finds its wav into
an underground tank of its own and is raised by
steam pumps to a still of its own. There a heat
of eight hundred degrees is applied. All the oil
is not then extracted in form of vapour, but the
still is red hot and any higher degree of heat
would fuse the entire apparatus to a burning
liquid. After the coal tar there is an ultimate
residuum of coke. This is highly inflammable.

It would be valuable as fuel in the fusing of iron
ore or other minerals when an intense heat is
required, but cannot be used as fuel here ....

Let us follow the oil which is now in the
treating-house; it is in circular tanks on the
second floor. In each there is an agitator, a
vertical shaft moved by machinery from below,
with horizontal arms. Water, which has been
raised by force-pumps to a tank on the highest
floor, now descends through a hose to be mingled
with the oil. By the touch of a lever the machinery

171

moves, the agitator plunges. A wild white foam
rises. The two elements, oil and water, seem
at wrathful discord. They refuse to mingle.

The agitator lashes them to fury. When they
have held ten minutes of this conflict, the
disturber stops. There is a minute of subsi¬
dence and repose. The two unamalgable elements
separate in peace -- water to the bottom, oil
to the top, calm, quiescent, with laughing dimples
on its face as if conscious of being uppermost
after the battle. The water and impurities adhering
to it are drawn off. The’ tank is not long at
peace. Down comes a second rush of water to vex
and wash that petroleum which had slept in the
crevices of deep rocks through ages the remoteness
of which human sagacity can make no feasible con¬
jecture .... A conflict goes on as before. The
disturber stops .... Water is drawn off .... A
third time comes a rush of water from above. The
tank is again full, and the steam-engine on the
ground floor, god-like in power, slave-like in
obedience, gives motion to the agitator. Again
it raises a splutter, a commotion, a foam, and
stops. This third water subsides and is drawn off.

A fourth rush of water from above. "What
again? .... Who else washes in this way?" "Per¬
haps no one. But here is an unlimited supply of
clear water. Here are perfect mechanical appliances
for washing the oil which no other refiners possess....
Make the future illuminator . . . pure as the
appliances of science and the supervision of
chemical genius can render it. And so once more
the agitator plunges , the foam rises .... Again
there is repose; water departs into the depths of
some deep, dark conduit; rock oil remains.

The washing is at an end. But though the
thing that has been cleansed " so pesistentlv is
now translucent and pure to the scrutinising eye,
it has an odour, not so disagreeable as before
the ordeal of the fiery furnace, yet so pungent
and suggestive of discomfort that if not removed
this lustrous illuminator would not be admitted
within the festive hall or the peaceful domestic
dwelling. The operator looks round. On a bench
stand several rows of concial-looking , round
bellied, short-necked bottles, each caged within
a basket, and wide enough to hold several gallons

172

of liquid. These are carboys and contain sulphuric
acid. He takes one, and according to the quantity
of oil to be treated so he pours in the acid. The
engine once more gives motion to the agitator
and foam arises as before . . . they boil into a
frothy rage. Sulphuric acid hisses, fumes, and
smokes, rising into the air in the form of vapours,
carrying certain component parts of the petrolific
fluid with it. The revolutionary agitator stops.

The work is done. The pungent acid has departed
in a cloud and carried the unpleasant odour of the
oil with it. Inoffensive to the organ of smell,
translucent to the eye, the rock oil refined is now
drawn from the several circular tanks where it was
treated, for more than one or two were simultaneously
were in operation, and is conducted to a general
receiver, a circular vat on the ground floor about
twenty feet in diameter and six or seven feet deep . . . .
The operator knows that he is only a practical chemist
and mechanician. The stranger, under the influences
of the charm before him, questions if the chemical
genius at his side is not a magician.

A tap in this receiver of refined rock oil
runs it into barrels . These barrels of fluid go
forth upon the commerce of the world, their first
destination being Montreal.

From the time that the crude petroleum was
emptied from the waggons into the first underground
tank until now that it is filled into the barrels
of commerce, faultless in puritv , human hand has
never been in contact with it, nor has human
strength been applied to any one of its many
transitions. All has been effected by machinery.

Five men only are required to work the entire
apparatus, complicated though it be. That portion
of the refinery at present working gives out two
hundred barrels in six davs . But in the course of
a few months, if demand should justify the appliance
of all stills and conjoint machinery, the estab¬
lishment could turn out from four hundred and fifty
to five hundred barrels every six days . 1

Here is evidence for a very well designed and sophisticated

refinery. It is no jerry-built operation.

Canadian News, June 14, 1866, pp . 374-375.

173

The stills are of known configuration a type of
still common in the early twentieth century, and fire-
bricked for more even heat distribution and fewer burnt-
out bottoms . A burnt-out bottom could produce a
serious conflagration and the Canada Rock Oil estab¬
lishment was designed, as much as possible, to avoid
that calamity. Host noteworthy of the fire prevention
measures was the placing and systems used for powering
steam engines. The engine itself was best placed close
to very volatile and inflammable products but this is
not true of the boiler and therefore one boiler was
used to supply steam to three engines from a safe dis¬
tance. In the interests of safety, some of the steam
pipes were underground — an arrangement offering much
in convenience as the site would be less cluttered with
obstructing steam lines. Unlike the refinery of Messrs.
Duncan and Clark, there is virtually no hand labour
nor is there the above ground storage.

Both Duncan and Clark and Canada Rock Oil seem to
have in common the pursuit of a single saleable pro¬
duct but note the differences in how they go about it.
Duncan, distilled only once and used the non-illuminating
cuts as a fuel. Canada Rock Oil with their own woodlot

' '

174

used wood for fuel but re-distilled the non-illuminating
cuts in order to increase their yield. Canada Rock Oil
was ’cracking1.'

In his next article Somerville identified himself
as "The Whistler at the Plough” , a reference to an
earlier work of his .

In the first week of November, 1866, I was at
London, C. W. That place is favourably situated
for the business of oil refineries .... Seven
refineries are situated in proximity outside the
city limits on the east. My footsteps were
directed to the one most recently established, which
was said to be distinguished by appliances ,
mechanical and chemical, not in use elsewhere. This
was the Atlantic Petroleum Refinery of H. Waterman
and Brother ....

WATERMAN’S REFINERY

Arrived within the gateway. I looked upon a
square enclosure of two acres. On the east side,
opposite the entrance, rose from amid low brick
buildings , holding in their interior furnaces and
stills, a tall chimney. In the centre of the pre¬
mises was a flagstaff . . . and ... a fountain
throwing aloft streams of pellucid water, which is
there found abundantly under the sandy soil and
pumped by steam power. On the left hand and the
right, as the visitor advances inward are terraces
of four or five feet high .... These terraces
are the fire-proof roofs of the petroleum vaults ;
tanks of crude oil under one, stores of refined
oil under another ....

On the right hand at entering is a two-
storied house, and beyond, at a safe distance,
having regard to fire, steam boilers and furnace.
In the house is a 12 horse-power engine and a
pump -- the latter a wonder in its way, as will
presently appear. On the upper floor is a tank in
which oil after distillation is washed with cold
water and chemically treated. This is called
the treating-house. The stills (five in number)
are on the further side of the square, eastward.
Near them but sufficiently distant for safety, are

' '

175

the cooper’s shops, where barrels are prepared,
painted outside, washed with liquid glue within.

Waggons . bring loads from the railways (ten
barrels to a load) , and men roll the barrels upon
the platform which adjoins the first terrace of
flower beds. A load of empties are taken away to
be forwarded to Bothwell, or Petrolia, or Oil
Springs, or Sarnia, and refilled. Underneath the
platform a pipe leads to a tank which holds four
hundred barrels , and from that tank pipes lead to
three others, holding in all sixteen hundred
barrels. When this crude oil is to be elevated
into the' stills, which stand in a row about eighty
feet distant eastward, a stopcock in the under¬
ground tube is opened and the liquid flows west¬
ward into a subterranean receiver below the treating-
house. The engine being in motion, the pump raises
the petroleum and sends it through a tube to the
opposite side of the yard, where it disperses by
other tubes into the five stills , each holding
forty-five barrels. The stills are made of boiler
plate and are built with brick, each over its
furnace, each with its brick flue. Cordwood
fuel is applied -- thirty cords of hardwood per
week. When the still is heated vapour rises, but
not escaping upward it issues through the gooseneck
of the still, technically the retort, and, conducted
by two pipes from each gooseneck, it goes under the
influence of cold water and is condensed. These
pipes containing the vapour are disposed in coils
around the interior of a tank holding one thousand
barrels of water. These different pipes unite in
one when the vapour is condensed to fluid, that
one conducting the distilled fluid to a receiver
underground beneath the central flower beds. It
holds two hundred barrels.

The product from crude petroleum which went
into the stills is of five kinds. The first
’’run" is a light fluid, termed benzole, mostly
used by painters. This flows about three hours.

It is succeeded by the heavier fluid, which becomes
burning oil. This runs thirtv or thirty-two hours.

The last "run" is heavy oil, used for lubricating
purposes. When the last vapour has been condensed,
a tap is opened in the still and tar runs out. A
bituminous remainder crystallises when cooling,
and is called coke. It is highly inflammable, and
with a mixture of other fuel is welcomed in foundaries

176

where intense heat is requisite. To get this
coke from the interior, the still must be opened
at the top and men enter in bodily with shovels.

To cool the still and give the men breath, the
pump forces from the west side currents of fresh
air. By merely turning one of a series of stop
cocks within the engine-house that pump at Isaac
Waterman’s will send crude oil into the stills, or
water into the condenser and into steam boilers
and into the chemically treating tank on the upper
floor, or fresh air into the stills, or raises the
distilled oil from the central subterranean
receiver to the tank on the upper floor, where it
is to be washed by the plunging agitator and
chemically treated. The stills being cleaned to
the bottom, are again hermetically closed and re¬
filled. This is done twice a week, but could be
accomplished three times a week ....

The treating tank on the floor overhead is
built of boiler plate and weighs four tons. Its
capacity is one hundred and forty. The distilled
petroleum, having arrived there, is washed with
water, the agitator, driven by steam power, plunging
round and round, lashing the oil and water to fury --
water foaming, oil foaming, mingling in the tumultuous
revolutions .... When the agitator stops , petroleum
comes up with a smile on its face . . . and water,
subsiding to the bottom, slinks awav into a drain,
indicating by its colour and odour that in the
battle upstairs it has given petroleum a dressing.

Sulphuric acid is poured into the tank, but
petroleum does not await the revolutions of the
agitator to show excitement; it fizzes, hisses,
and evinces a natural antagonism against such treat¬
ment. The machinery moves fast, faster; then slow,
slower, stops. The acid has absorbed the gaseous
foul breath of petroleum; but itself is foul, it
cannot remain. To expel it, water is admitted. Again
violent revolutions, conflict, tumult .... After
the storm a calm. Oil comes up .... Water runs
to its drain. Again a chemical agent is applied,

Isaac Waterman's own peculiar secret. It is this
which gives the oil from Waterman’s Petroleum Works
pre-eminence. He declined to say what it is. He
has elaborated it by experiment through several years.
The pelucid fluid, void of odour, bears witness that

177

he has a secret not available in other refineries.

A new kind of stop-cock at the stills and about the
pumps, his own invention, and various portions of
machinery and appliances prove him to be a
mechanical genius as well as a chemist.

The purity of the oil is ascertained by the
hydrometer and the fire test .... If it stands
these tests, the fluid is passed to a tank from
whence it is barreled in the storehouse under¬
neath the flowery terraces. There two thousand
barrels may be stored, but when I was at the works
in November the demand for the article kept the
cellars comparatively empty.

Isaac Waterman is, in years and in features,
youthful. He has studied and made experiments
inspired by a love of chemistry .... The older
brother, head of the firm, is a drv goods merchant;
they are reputed wealthy. The power of capital to
command the services of skilled labour was seen in
the erection of these works. From the day when
the first spadeful of earth was turned to the day
when stills, engine, pump, and all accessories were
in full operation, only seven weeks elapsed. The
pump was made at Brooklyn, in the States; all the
other work -- stills, tanks, and construction,
emanated from little London city, except the
engine -- that was made by Beckett and Sons, of
Hamilton . 1

Before making any comments about the refinery it should
be noted that London had seven refineries just outside
the eastern limits of the city -- the prevailing winds
were from the west.

Both Waterman’s and the Canada Rock Oil Company
refineries were models of safety, well-planned efficiency
and care. The concern for safety is seen in his extensive
use of underground storage facilities as well as the
relative isolation of boilers and furnace. The many

Canadian News , Feb. 28 , 1867 , pp . 131-132.

178

uses to which steam engine and pump are put is an
example of an imaginative quest for cost-cutting
efficiency. The use of the air pump would not only
make the life of the workmen less unbearable but in
facilitating cooling of the stills would decrease down
time or the time between charges. Another example of-
Waterman's desire to maximize the benefits from his
machinery is seen in his condensing equipment. The
simple expedient of two 'worms’ or condensing pipes
from each gooseneck would, at a given rate of flow,
result in an increased liquid yield, or, while re¬
taining the liquid yield of one worm, allow a faster
rate of distillation v/hile retaining the same rate of
cooling water flow. Either way the water pumped bv
the steam engine is doing more useful work than were
he to have only a single condenser. Uniting the various
condenser pipes meant fewer pipes to be potential sources
of leakage.

Waterman was not 'cracking' or re-distilling
but was pursuing more than one product of commercial
value. The account of Waterman’s refinery is the first
to introduce reliable 'run' times and a job that must
have been extremely unenviable — removing coke from
the stills. In previous descriptions there is no

179

mention of this essential task. From the manner

in which Somerville treats the air pump and

Waterman’s use of it, Waterman’s method of cooling

and ventilating his stills was unique in that area --

a boon to workers ’ health as well as faster cooling

and therefore greater use of the stills.

In 1869 the Ontario Carbon Oil Company of Hamilton

erected a still in Petrolia of hitherto unprecedented

size: 2,000 barrels. Due to its size it was dubbed

and always referred to simply as the Mammoth Oil Still.

Plagued by fires and explosions it was neither a

financial nor a technological success. It did have one

interesting feature -- ”a most perfect svphon” for

discharging the "liquid tar or residuum." Beyond the
syphon the Mammoth Still seemed to embody no innovations
other than sheer size. One of the reasons why the
Mammoth Still was initially praised was because of
its heat distribution.

The fires are so well calculated that the bottom
of the still is equally heated; but when they get
their apparatus for burning tar in the furnaces
completed, they expect to be able to distribute
the heat over all the parts with less trouble. 2

Heat distribution was one of the problems demanding some

attention during the 1860s although from what is to be

Canadian

News ,

Aug.

26 ,

1869 ,

P«

137.

Canadian

News ,

Aug.

26 ,

1869 ,

P-

137.

180

given below it seems to be part of the refining game,

a game in which the goal is not to prevent the

appearance of burnt-out bottoms but just to make their

occurrence less frequent. The Wyoming News-Letter

was confident that burnt-out bottoms would not be a

frequent acquaintance of Mr. Ward.

He has adopted a new plan of building his
stills , which diffuses the heat evenly to all
parts , and therby prevents the bottoms from
burning out as quick as they otherwise would. 1

The praise that has been given to some refiners

should not lead one to believe that there w as little

room for improvement. Innovations such as continuous

charging were still far in the future but it should be
clear that during the 1860s the distillation and re¬
fining facilities in Canada West had undergone consi¬
derable improvement. But refining requires more than
the construction of the physical plant and it is these
other aspects of refining that are to be dealt with
below .

Lambton crude had a very objectionable odour which

1. Canadian News, Sept. 23, 1869, p. 198. Based on
Wyoming News-Letter.

During the 1860s there were schemes and plans for
continuous charging but there is no evidence that
they were adopted in Canada until the 1880s or
later.

181

was not removed by distillation. It was therefore
necessary to subject the oil to further chemical treat¬
ment. In none of the refinery descriptions quoted
above is there a complete description of the chemical
processes. The one description which might appear to
be complete, Somerville's of the. Canada Rock Oil Com¬
pany, seems incomplete as there is no neutralization of

the sulphuric acid. In describing Waterman's refinery,

Somerville again shows no recognition of the need for

the neutralization of the acid although he recorded what

was undoubtedly the addition of a base to the acid.

Again a chemical agent is applied. Isaac W7aterman's
own peculiar secret. It is this which gives the
oil from Waterman's Petroleum Works pre-eminence.

He declined to say what it is . He has elaborated
it by experiment through several years. 2

An unknown reporter warned his readers about secretive

refiners .

The oil refiners generally talk a great deal of
nonsense about the method they have of treating
the oil after it is passed through the still, for
the purpose of further purifying and deodorizing it.

Not only did the reporter forewarn his readers he also

informed them as to what really took place — agitation

with "3 to 4 per cent of sulphuric acid (common Vitriol)

and 3gper cent of muriatic acid." To get rid of the acid

1. Canadian News, June 14, 1866, pp. 374-375.

2. Canadian News, Feb. 28, 1867, p. 132.

182

the "oil is afterwards "washed" or passed through a

lye made of one pound of caustic of soda to 5 gallons
1

of water." The above starts to explain Fairbank’s

purchases of chloride of lime, acid, and soda.

In most Ontario refineries the process was probably

essentially the same. The distilled oil would be washed

and agitated to help remove water soluble impurities ,

allow heavier than oil impurities to separate out, and

give remaining volatile vapours a chance to evaporate

off. The next' step would be the addition and agitation

with sulphuric acid which "partly removes sulphur and

nitrogen compounds , precipitates asphaltic and other

resinous materials and removes olefinic and unstable
3

compounds." The remaining acid would be neutralized
in an acid-base reaction to form insoluble sulphate
salts which along with other precipitates and unreacted
base would be removed from the oil in subsequent washings
and agitation. Most of the hydrogen sulphide would have
escaped during agitation. All of this might then be
followed by further settling and bleaching.

It remains to ask whether or not the oil was treated

1. Globe , Mar. 12, 1862.

2. For one example see Diary , Feb. 18, 1863.

3. Purdy, Petroleum , p. 205.

183

in the manner described and whether or not the treat¬
ment would deodorize the oil. It is very likely that
the oil was treated in the manner described but, for
persons previously discussed, one cannot be entirely
certain. Another reason for the lack of certainty is
that there were other methods available and being used
during the 1860s.

Refining with sulphuric acid was not without its

complications as the strength and/or quantity of acid

used was very important. Too much acid would give oils

partially charred and discoloured while too little would

not remove the impurities leaving an oil likely to change

colour after packaging. It is probably because of the

difficulties presented by sulphuric acid that some

refiners used no acids, only alkalies. J. H. Fairbank
bought chloride of lime and there was a method of re¬
fining using chloride of lime.

In treating for disinfecting and removing
the impurities from petroleum and products thereof,
it has been usual to employ chloride of lime in a
dry state and in combination with other matters ,
but which, however, is very imperfect in its action
and far from obtaining the desired result.

According to an invention ... bv Mr. B.

Azular, of Rotherhithe, the oils are treated with
a saturated solution of chloride of lime, and, as

1. Tate, Petroleum, p. 70 and. "On Refining Petroleum,"
Manufactures for Upper Canada, II (Dec., 1862), 374-
37 5 . From 'Philadelphia Coal Oil Circular.

Tate, Petroleum, p. 75.

184

it were, washed in the solution. For this
purpose the oil is placed in a suitable vat or
vessel and the solution poured over it, the so¬
lution sinks through the oil, and is drawn up
from the bottom, and by a pump or other means is
elevated again to the top, and so a circulation
of the solution in the oil is kept up and the
impurities thus abstracted from the oil, which is
rendered clean and quite free from offensive smell . . .
If the oil is not very bad the same solution may
be used again. If the oil is bad the solution will
be found to have acquired- the taint of the oil and
must not be used again.

If the oil is very bad it may be found
necessary to repeat the process with a fresh
solution, in that case a second vat is provided,
the top of which would reach the oil tap of the
first vat; the treated oil is then drawn from the
first into the second vat and washed in water. After
the oil has been separated from the water, the latter
is drawn off and a second solution is then thrown on
the oil, and the process proceeds as before. Instead
of the solution of chloride of lime being applied
at the top and drawn up from the bottom of the
vessel, the oil may be forced in at the bottom of
a vessel, containing the solution of chloride of
lime, when it will rise through the solution and
may be drawn off at the top, repeating the
operation as often as may be necessarv according to
the quality of the oil operated upon.l

Other proposals were somewhat further removed from

those already introduced. One system of deodorizing

was to use "deutoxide or nitrous gas" from nitric or

fuming nitrous acid or from the gas itself. The basis
of another proposal was chromic acid which gave chromic

1. "Purification of Petroleum," Manufactures for Upper

Canada, V (July, 1865), 193. From Mechanics* Magazine.

"Deodorizing Petroleum and Mineral Oils," Manufactures
for Upper Canada, III (Julv, 1863), 218-219.

185

oxide as one of the intermediate products. Metallic
oxides were later to play an important role in effec¬
tive refining and the proposal using chromic acid, al¬
though its fate is unknown, merits attention.

A patent has lately been taken out in England
by James Stuart, of London, for the treatment
of petroleum and crude oils of all descriptions
obtained from coal, shale, bitumen or wells ....

A solution of chromic acid in water is a novelty . . . .

For every 100 gallons of crude oil to be
treated, 12% lbs. of bichromate of potash is
taken and dissolved in 12h gallons of water, and
to this solution is added Ih gallons of vitriol
(the sulphuric acid of commerce). The solution
of chromic acid which is thus obtained is added
to and mixed with the oil, the oil is being kept
.intimately mixed by churning or agitating it for
about an hour. By this treatment a quantity of
pitchy matter and other impurities are separated
from the oil, and the oil is deprived of the
greater part of its unpleasant smell. The chromic
acid is at once converted into oxyd of chromium,
with which the excess of sulphuric acid unites,
and forms sulphate of chromium. The mixture is now
left at rest until, separation takes place . . .
usually . . . one to two hours . The oil then being
the upper portion is drawn off into another vessel,
agitated with a solution of soda for about an
hour. This is done to wash out or neutralize any
acids remaining in the oil. The solution of soda,
which it is preferred to use, is made by dissolving
12^ lbs. of soda ash of commerce in 12^ gallons
of water, and adding that quantity to -.every 100
gallons of oil to be washed. After one hour’s
agitation, the whole is left at rest until the
oil has separated from the soda solution, after
which the oil is placed in an iron still, and dis¬
tilled. The distillation is continued until the
whole bulk of oil distilled reaches .840 sp . gr.
at 60° of temperature. The distillate is then
to be placed in a proper vessel, and treated as
before by churning or agitating with a solution of

186

chromic acid in water .... bichromate of potash
. . . water . . . oil of vitriol . . . agitation . . .
left at rest until the oil is separated from the
solution of sulphate of chromiun and impurities.
Afterward, the oil is drawn off into another
vessel, and washed by mixing or agitating it, for
half an hour or thereabouts , with one-fourth its
bulk of water or one-fourth its bulk of lime-
water. When the water or lime-water has com¬
pletely separated, and the oil has become bright,
it will be fit for use as an illuminating oil-*-
The heavy oil remaining in the still is distilled
to dryness , and may then be treated by any of the
known methods for obtaining paraffine or lubricating
oil. The chromic acid used in the process above
described may be obtained otherwise than from the
bichromate of potash; it is, however, 'usually most
convenient to employ this salt. It is preferred
to apply the chromic acid in the first place to
the crude oils, because the solution of chromic
acid, by removing the pitch, tar and other impurities
from the oil, enables it to be distilled at a heat
much lower than would otherwise be necessary, and
so prevents decomposition taking place in the still.
It is found that, after treating some crude oils
with a solution of chromic acid, and distilling ...
the oil so obtained is of too dark a color to be
used as an illuminating oil. In this case, the
oil is treated by churning or agitating it with
two per cent (by bulk) of oil of vitriol for about
an hour, then allowing the whole to rest until the
acid, tar or sludge is separated from the oil. The
oil is then drawn off into another vessel, and
agitated with two per cent of powdered quicklime
or dried chalk for another hour, or until the
smell of sulphurous acid has left the oil. There
is then added 25 per cent (by bulk) of water, arid
the whole is agitated for a quarter of an hour;
after which time the mixture is left at rest until
the oil has become bright, when it is drawn off for
use; but if the oil is not of a good color, it is
re-distilled. If there is difficulty in getting the
oil perfectly bright, there is added to every 100
gallons of oil, 26 lbs. of common salt dissolved
in 8 gallons of water, and the whole is agitated
well together for a quarter of an hour; then, when

■

187

left at- rest, the oil will become perfectly
bright. In no case however, is the oil of
vitriol used for treating the oil, if it can
be avoided, as it unites with and decomposes a
great part of the lighter oils, and this it is
wished to avoid as much as possible. The chromium
used in the process may be recovered either as sul¬
phate or oxyd, as desired. 1

Most significant in the above is the extreme care

recommended, including double treatment, and the use of

a metallic oxide. The Journal of the Board of Arts and

Manufactures for Upper Canada reported in 1866 that

olive oil could be purified from its acid by treatment
2

with lead. Two years later it reported the use of

lead, actually an oxide, in deodorizing petroleum.

. . . the disagreeable odor of petroleum oil can be
taken away by treating the oil with a solution of
oxyd of lead in caustic soda, and will certainly
remove all such odor as sulphur compounds might
communicate to the oil . 3

A further source of information for refining pro¬
cesses but one that is less helpful than might be
expected is the patents issued in Canada during the 1860s.
It is necessary to be extremely cautious when using the
patents of the 1860s as historical evidence for industrial

1. "On the Purification of Bitumens and Coal Oil,"
Manufactures for Upper Canada, I (June, 1861), 154-155.

2. "Misuse of Oils," Manufactures for Upper Canada, VI
( Sept . , 1866), 250.

3. "Deodorizing Petroleum Oil," Manufactures for .Ontario,
VIII (Jan., 1868), 20 . From Mechanics' Magazine".

188

practice because there is generally no indication
whether or not the idea was workable. Patents did
not have to be workable and it is clear that some are
the work of weekend chemists working with small flasks,
perhaps not even that but only a drawing board. The
difficulties in using the Canadian patents of the 1860s as
a guide to industrial practice is best illustrated by
looking at continuous charging of petroleum stills.

Continuous charging was not successful during
the 1860s but there are patents for various means of
continuous charging methods of distillation and/or re¬
fining. The first of a number of patents using continu¬
ous charging was issued to a Petrolia engineer, John
Fleming, on Dec. 4, 1861. He claimed that he could
accomplish continuous charging by preheating but the
most interesting statement is that "By the present mode
of distilling these oils, about 35 per cent of surface

and 60 to 70 per cent of rock is all that is obtained

for luminating(sic) purposes", a statement in agreement
with other evidence regarding yields. Patents granted
to men who were not oil refiners or engineers show
considerable faith in a combination of continuous charging
and the formation of a partial vacuum. The patents

1. Patent Archives Library, Ottawa, Canada Patent

Number 1304.

189

granted to -Otto Rotton of Kingston, a Doctor of

Medicine, and that of Samuel Stevens, a gentleman of
Belleville, are on these principles. There is no
evidence that they were used nor that even a pilot plant
or small scale models were ever constructed. The same
may be said of Dr. Rotton’ s patented system in which
petroleum was supposedly distilled and in part deo¬
dorized by being sprayed from a pump onto hot cones

heated by superheated steam and then condensed. There
is nothing in the patent description or application to
make one suspect that it ever left the drawing board.

Patents relating to the chemistry of refining
reflect practice already mentioned and there is no evi¬
dence to indicate that the ideas patented were put into

practice. A patent granted in 1862 to a Toronto gentle-
4

man is representative of the exaggerated and I believe
untested claims that are found all too frequently.
Chloride of lime, sal soda, manganese and lye, violently
shaken with crude will NOT "render the oil nonexplosive"

Patent
2108 ,

Archives
2109, 2196

Library ,

Ottawa ,

Canada

Patent

Numbers

Patent
2369 .

Archives

Library ,

Ottawa ,

Canada

Patent

Number

* ' 1

190

as claimed. It would produce a very dangerous lighting

fluid. John Tindall was a Sarnia ’’chemist -- late of

Liverpool" and his patent is probably a reflection of
the careful English practice discussed elsewhere and
not Sarnia practice.

Tindall’s patent and three others do supply evi¬
dence that some people were thinking about refining
in terms of sulphuric acid and soda as well as their

own special ingredients. Two patents were* granted to

a London refiner, John Robinson, in 1867. In both

spirits of turpentine and rosin are used, supposedly to

help improve the quality. In both he mentions treating

with sulphuric acid in the ordinary way. That sulphuric

acid was probably used heavily in refining operations

is indicated by the fact that Robert Loftus , an

Enniskillen oil refiner, patented ”A new and useful

process by which the Sulphuric acid used in refining

distilled petroleum . . . can be recovered and made equal

.to the acid in its original state for ... Refining ....’’
Although there was considerable varietv in refining
methods available and perhaps in use it is not a totally

1. Patent Archives Library, Ottawa, Canada Patent Number
1513.

2. Patent Archives Library, Ottawa, Canada Patent Numbers
2303, 2360.

Patent Archives Library, Ottawa, Canada Patent Number
1664.

191

bewildering situation. Most of the refining was
probably conducted using the sulphuric acid and soda
process perhaps' with some modification. There were
some, individuals who had rather startling claims and
methods but it as safe to mention these and then ignore
them. Representative of this type of ’refiners’ is
Dr. H. E. Tweddles of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr.
Tweddles was the inventor of a process for manufacturing
oil by which the

hazard and risk attendant upon the use of fire
in distilling the crude petroleum, and the
expense and nuisance of subsequent purification
by acids and alkalies, are entirely avoided.

Steam is the only agent used, and it is utterly
impossible to ignite the oils during the operation.
But six or eight minutes is required to convert
crude into refined oil.l

An important question to ask. about any refining process
was whether or not it worked and that of Tweddles would
not, particularly if used with Lambton crude.

The major stumbling block to the acceptance of
Lambton crude as a source of an illuminant was its odour.
It is necessary to distinguish between two types of
odours associated with petroleum. The first is common
to all crudes, particularly in warm weather, and is
merely due to the evaporation of the more volatile

”A New Process for Manufacturing Oil,” Manufactures
for Ontario, VII (Dec., 1867), 324.

192

components. • Odours of this type are common to crude

but less so to refined products, particularly the less

volatile. One can be rid of these odours by taking cuts

which are less volatile. The second type of odour is

the more serious and that which caused the smell of

petroleum to be likened unto garlic, onions, leeks, and

antiquated eggs. These odours are due to the presence

of various sulphur compounds. The antiquated egg smell

is due to hydrogen sulphide and the onions, leeks, and

garlic, i.e. the " skunk” due to the presence of mercaptans --

organic sulphur compounds with a particularly offensive
1

odour. There were also other odour-causing impurities.

Various organic acids, particularly naphthenic acids have

an offensive odour. Using the acid and soda refining

procedures some of the offenders would be removed. "Hydrogen

sulphide ... is readily removed from petroleum products

by washing them with an alkaline (lye) solution" and

"organic acids are readily removed from petroleum pro-

ducts by treatment with a lye solution." This leaves only

Purdy ,

Petroleum,

P-

Purdy ,

Petroleum,

P-

3 •

Purdy ,

Petroleum,

Purdy ,

Petroleum,

P-

193

the stable mercaptans , compounds with a skunk odour
and which according to generally accepted opinion were
not eliminated until the Frasch copper oxide process

removed the sulphur of the mercaptans as copper sulphide.

The Frasch process was not introduced until the 1880s,
and with it complete sulphur removal was at last possible.
But in the period before the 1880s, particularly the
1860s, there were numerous claims that deodorization has
been solved. The existence of these claims must be
explained, particularly those in the late 1860s as it
was in the late 1860s and the early 1870s that Canadian
crude and refined finally commanded a large export market.

purity is a relative term. Pure was basically
that which was acceptable in the market place whereas the
impure was not. Purity was a very subjective concept
and varied in time and place. It is also necessary to
realize that that which is possible is not always that

.1. Herman Frasch, "A Record of Achievement in Chemistry,
1912,” in Readings in Technology and American Life,
ed. by Caroll W. Pursell, Jr. (New York: Oxford-
University Press, 1969), pp . 127-130.

Ross , Petroleum , pp . 45-46.

Aaron J. Ihde , The Development of Modern Chemistry
(New York: Harper 8 Row, 1970), p. 675.

All three accounts differ in one respect. Ross savs
that Frasch was "employed as a chemist in one of the
Canadian refineries” whereas Frasch claims that he.
"bought a refinery in Canada" and there made the dis¬
covery. Ihde has Frasch working "in the petroleum in¬
dustry in Cleveland, where he invented a process for
desulfurizing crude oil ...."

194

which is done. Coal gas producers were faced with

the sulphur problem just as were the petroleum refiners

and there is considerable literature on the hazards of

sulphur in coal gas as well as how to deal with it. An

excellent source of information on the sulphur in coal

gas controversy is the Journal of the Royal Society of

Arts . When reading the Journal it becomes apparent that

what coal gas producers were seeking was not absolute

elimination of sulphur and its compounds but their

reduction to acceptable levels using not laboratory

but large scale processes which were economical. Keeping
in mind the flexible nature of purity and its value as an
advertising claim, one should not condemn as charlatans
those who claimed to have deodorized the oil. One
should look at refining techniques before passing
judgment .

The refining techniques explain why Canadian
crude refined in England or the United States was being
sold easily. The answer is simple -- care and time.
Canadian refiners simply did not give their oil the time
and care that it needed. In each step taken by Canadian

1. This i-s based on reading many of the articles in

the Journal during the 1850s and 1860s. Should
the reader wish to pursue this subject it is
easily done because the Journal is very well-
indexed .

195

refiners less time was spent than was the case with
• > 1
their American and British counterparts. Not only

did Canadian refiners take less time at each stage
of the refining process but they only did once what
their British and American counterparts did twice,
sometimes three times. It was not until 1868 that
Canadian oil refined in Canada began to gain acceptance
as a qualtiy product -- a product which could compete
in foreign markets. The key to this success was care¬
ful work rather than technological innovation.

The chief difficulty in the way of a foreign
market has always been the quality of our re¬
fined oil . . . our refiners are now in a position
to challenge comparison with the best American
"standard white" .... The method is by double-
distillation and double treatment. The process
is simple -- the oil is distilled in the usual
way . . . the distilled is then treated with
acid, and the whole is pumped back into the still
and re-distilled ... and then treated again. This
double distilling and double treating . . . produces
with ordinary attention, an oil white, free from
objectionable odours, of a gravity of 44 deg., and
which will stand a fire test of 120 deg. , or five
deg. over the standard. Some thousands of barrels

1. See for example any of Tate, Petroleum , p. 70,
Canadian Native Oil, pp. 26-27, or "On Refining
Petroleum, " Manufactures For Upper Canada, II (Dec.,
1862), 374-375. From Philadelphia Coal Oil
Circular .

196

have lately been made by different manufacturers
with a uniform result. 1

It is significant but not surprising that careful and
therefore more effective refining, by the standards of
the day, made its appearance in Canada so late. The
Canadian oil industry was much smaller than that in the
United States and it was only in the late 1860s that the
pefining industry started to take on the air of a perma¬
nent business rather than a gambling and ge^t-rich-quick
scheme. It was only at this time that a few dared to
seriously try to move from supplier of raw or semi-pro-
cessed materials to supplier of finished product. By
this time a nascent Canadian chemical industry had been
sufficiently established to provide a ready and reliable
source of essential refining chemicals.

1. Canadian News , Nov. 12, 1868, pp. 309-310. Based on
the London Free Press. The phrase "different manu¬
facturers" is not to be interpreted as meaning manv .
as there were only two or three, see Canadian News ,

Dec. 3, 1858, p. 356, and Canadian News, May 13, 1869,
p. 294. However, the Observer , April 16 , 1869 , has
following to say: "Concerning the deodorization of
oil; this has been done by Messrs. Duffield and
Brothers, Waterman and Brother, Spencer and Keenlevside
and some others in London, and by the Canada Land and
Mineral Co. , of Petrolia, under the management of Mr.
James McMillan." Unfortunately nothing is said about
the methods involved and so one just does not know how
effective the "deodorization" might have been.

197

Canadian crude oil did suffer from a disability

not present in the oil from the American oil fields

worked in the 1860s. Many in Canada were unwilling

to face up to this problem and were content to supply

crude, distilled, or a refined unworthy of the name

rather than a refined which was worthy of the name.

There was no question that double refining ’’cost

extra labour and expense” and some wondered whether

or not it would pay. The critical year for testing

double treatment was 1869. Hopes were high by the

stunt of ' the year. By August there was no question.

Since the new mode of treating the oil has been
discovered and proved to be the thing wanted,
an export trade of important dimensions has
sprung up . 3

The nature of "the new mode of treating the oil”

was not revealed; it might have been regarded as common

knowledge. Undoubtedly the oil was carefully given

double treatment and was probably also given the pre-

viously mentioned lead oxide treatment. Canadians were'
able to break into foreign markets by coming up to world

Canadian

News ,

Dec. 3,

1868, p .

356 .

Canadian

News ,

May 13,

1868 , p .

294 .

Canadian

News ,

Aug. 19

, 1868 , p.

’ 116.

"Deodorizing Petroleum Oil," Manufactures for Ontario,
VIII (Jan. , 1868) , 20 .

198

standards, i.e. British and American standards. Canadians

were definitely giving their crude the care and time

needed for double treatment. In Canada there was also

the knowledge that lead oxide could be used in refining

petroleum. An important patent was issued to John Fry,

a Quebec merchant. Fry did not. claim to originate the’

process nor to have used it, he merely learned it while

travelling in France. The patent, granted Dec. 24, 1868,

was for "A new and useful art of purifying and deodorizing

Petroleums and other liquid and solid Hydro-carbons . ..."

The Hydro-carbons and especially the Canadian
Petroleums are much benefitted by treating them
both before and after distillation with a solution
of oxyde of lead in caustic soda or potash. This
solution which is called caustic lead is made bv
adding Lytharge or other oxyde of lead in fine
powder to a strong solution of the caustic soda
or Potash in water, and then boiling them to¬
gether, till the solution is saturated, the excess
of lytharge falling to the bottom of the vessel,
from which the clear caustic lead is poured off
for use. The Petroleum or other liquid Hydro¬
carbon, should be well agitated with about five
per cent of the caustic lead, before it is dis¬
tilled, and with about three per cent after dis¬
tillation, when it should be finished in the usual
manner with sulphuric acid and alkali or other
mode of treatment.!

Removing the mercaptans was a difficult task
because during the 1860s and 1870s the state of the art
in organic chemistry was such that the offending mercaptans

Patent Office Archives, Ottawa, Canada Patent
Number 2933.

■

199

had not been identified and isolated. The identifi¬
cation work began in the 1880s.

Before 1870 Canadian refiners were capable of

producing from high sulphur Lambton crude a refined

illuminating oil which, by the standards of the day, was

odourless. But it was costlier to produce than a poorer

quality product and unfortunately was often not produced.

Throughout the 1870s and 1880s newspaper editors reminded

the oil interests that "one thing the people have a right

to demand is a good article of oil, which our crude is

capable of turning out if properly handled.'1 Many
Canadians were not getting a good illuminant, but it was
not because one could not be produced in Canada. There
were Canadian refiners turning out a first rate product
as well as an inferior one. The refiners instituted a
double price and double quality system whereby the best
oil was reserved for export and sold for less than the
inferior product sold in Canada. The details of this
system and why it was able to survive are outside the

-1.

Canadian News, June 3, 1874, p. 424.

200

bounds of. this thesis. The fact that such a
policy existed led to so many complaints that it is
easy to erroneously underestimate the level of
technical sophistication which the Canadian oil
industry possessed by the end of the 1860s.

1. The reader wishing to pursue this further should
begin his research in the Monetary Times which
published more or less regular reports on the
oil industry. The reports are virtually devoid
of any technical information but are very good on
finance .

201

CHAPTER IV

PRODUCTS. AND USES OF PETROLEUM.

The Petroleum Boom in the late 1850s and early 1860s
was quite unlike any previous mineral boom in Canada. It
was different in that one had to search not only for the
mineral but also for uses for it, a situation quite un¬
like that in the iron and gold booms going on at the same
time. In this respect the closest thing to the oil boom

was the excitement created by Mr. Hodges and his peat
1

machines . It had been known for many years that peat
existed in Canada but James Hodges was the first to con¬
vince Canadians that it was a valuable resource. Hodges
desigend and constructed machinery to produce a solid fuel
from peat. Contemporary and earlier schemes in Europe aimed
not at a single product but the production of gas, oils and
other products, all in the same manufactory. In Canada,
more was expected of petroleum than of peat. Petroleum was
the promising youth of Canadian industry during the 1860s.
Caught up in a dizzying whirl of optimism, boosterism, and

1. This is the same Mr. James Hodges o^ Victoria

Bridge fame. During 1863 and 1864 peat frequently
was given better coverage in the Canadian News than
was petroleum The interest in peat throughout the
1860s is shown by the coverage given it in various
engineering and scientific journals.

202

promotional drumbeating, petroleum, a resource not
yet sufficiently analysed or understood, was pro¬
nounced fit to produce far more than the technological
environment of the 1860s would allow. Many promises
were unfulfilled but in order to understand the petro¬
leum industry in Canada during the 1860s one must examine
expectations as well as accomplishments.

There was no shortage of sources repetitiouslv
extolling the virtues and promise of petroleum. News¬
papers, government, scholarly and scientific communi¬
cations and publications as well as oil company pros¬
pectuses and releases all joined in listing and dis¬
cussing the many products that were to be produced from
petroleum.

Lambton crude petroleum was analyzed scientifi¬
cally to determine its potential. The first attempt
at analysis was probably that made by Dr. Antisell.

On February 19 , 1853 ’’Thomas Antisell, M.D., Consulting
and Analytic Chemist” wrote and forwarded a ’’report on
and Chemical examination of a sample of Asphalte forwarded

203

to me by Mr. Tripp.” This important document is to
be found in Appendix B and will be only summarised
and commented upon here. It was not the free liquid
petroleum that was being analyzed but the petroleum
and earth mixture found in the Gum Beds of Enniskillen
township and subsequently roasted by Tripp and Williams.
Much of what Antisell said applies to free liquid petroleum
because most of the report dealt with the uses of products
liberated from their earthy prison. Although he mentioned
various uses Antisell felt that "the manufacture of

1. Doctor Antisell was noted as the author of: Thomas
Antisell, The Manufacture of Photogenic or Hydro¬
carbon Oils from Coal and other Bituminous Substances
Capable of Supplying Burning Fluids (New York: D .

Appleton 8 Co., 1859).

The book is well worth reading but should be read
in conjunction with the scathing review of it.

See Frank H. Storer, "Review of Dr. Antisell’s Work
on Photogenic Oils, 8 C.," American Journal of
Science and Arts, XXX (Nov., 1860), 112-121, 254-
264.

As news of the resource of Enniskillen spread,

one of the frequently made comments was "unfortunately

... it is not coal." See Free Press , May 27, 1858.

The petroleum was soon regarded as a resource "second
in importance only to coal". See Leader , June 30,
1860.

204

volatile liquids and an illuminating gas appears to

be its more appropriate uses.” As a source of liquids
the ”asphalte” would provide an excellent solvent, par¬
ticularly for Gutta-Percha. The liquids might, when

mixed with alcohol, provide an illuminating fluid. The
other way to turn petroleum into an illuminant was con¬
version of the "asphalte" into gas , as was done with
coal. It was also expected that it would be useful in
the production of Japan and other varnishes as well as
mastics and cements including a hvdraulic cement. No
potential use was given for the paraffin. Of the various
uses for the asphalt or oil earth given by Antisell,
Charles Nelson Tripp probably put most faith in its
potential as a source of an illuminating gas . Several
years after Antisell’s report Tripp sent a 1,450 pound
sample to the Hamilton Gas Company and received a
favourable report. The full text of this report is to
be found in Appendix C. Virtually nothing is known about

1. This judgment was generally held of liquid petroleum.

It is worthy of note that Antisell did not mention
lubricants .

2. As it turned out, petroleum products helped to banish
this type of dangerous mixture; the alcohol and turpen¬
tine mixture was not to be replaced by petroleum and
alcohol. Petroleum was to do away with the use of
alcohol, mixed or unmixed, as an illuminant.

205

what Tripp. really felt could be accomplished with the

crude petroleum of Lamb ton. In 1855 the International

Mining and Manufacturing Company was awarded an Honour-

able Mention for its asphalt in Paris but it is not
known to what extent Tripp was responsible for this
achievement or even if he was still with the company.

The Journal of the Board of Arts and Manufactures
for Upper Canada, throughout its relatively short career,
was a most enthusiastic booster for Canadian petroleum.

The Journal gave the impression that petroleum was a
product with many uses and was constantly drawing atten¬
tion to and encouraging various uses for petroleum. In
one letter petroleum was identified as a source of "burning
oil" , "Paraffine" , for which there were a variety of un¬
named uses, a lubricant; and, from the refuse, a coke that

’’burns freely in a grate." Considerable faith was put in

petroleum’s future as a source of gas. Petroleum could

be utilized as the sole source of gas, as in the Thompson

and Hind process, or for the enrichment or "naphthalization"

T . J. C. Tache, Canada at the Universal Exhibition of
1855 (Toronto: John Lovell, 1856), p . 372.

2. Fisher, "Letter," p. 46.

"Petroleum Gas," Manufactures for Upper Canada,

II (Sept. , 1862) , 272 .

206

of coal gas. The advantage of the naphthalized coal

gas over conventional coal gas V7as that the former

gave less heat for the same amount of light, a state

of affairs not to be taken lightly particularly in

crowded quarters. In Canada the petroleum gas was also

cheaper than coal gas .

The chemical industry was seen as a potential
beneficiary (customer) of the petroleum industry which

would produce "benzole", "nitro-benzole" (oil of bitter

• 4

almonds), "aniline" and dyes produced from aniline. The
benzole was sometimes referred to as naphtha but what¬
ever the name it was seen as a product of potentially
wide use, primarily as a solvent for gutta percha,
caoutchouc, resins, and gums. Due to its powers as a
solvent, benzole could be used in "extracting oil from

1. "New Application of Rock Oil," Manufactures for
Upper Canada, I (Nov., 1861), 286-287. LHerein-
after referred to as "New Applications of Rock Oil"].

2. "Illuminating Gas," Manufactures for Upper Canada, II
(April, 1862), 103-104. From American Gas-Light
Journal . "Artificial Illumination," Manufacture’s
for Upper Canada, III (April, 1863), 120-122.

3. "Petroleum Gas," Manufactures for Upper Canada, II
(Sept. , 1862) , 272 .

4. "The Petroleum, or Rock Oil of Canada," Manufactures
for Upper Canada , I (Mar., 1861), 61. [Hereinafter
referred to as ""The Petroleum, or Rock Oil of
Canada" ] .

207

wool before- dyeing" , removing grease from clothing as

well as removing "tar paint, oils, grease and resin."

• Petroleum also had recognized antiseptic and preserva-

tive qualities . Petroleum could also be used as a paint
3

oil. With the shortage of turpentine brought about by
the War in the United States eupion oil or benzine was
pressed into service and performed admirably as a substi¬
tute for turpentine in paints.

One of the less glamorous uses to which a petroleum

product -- heavy oil — was put was for cleaning boilers.
One would not expect petroleum’s use as a boiler cleaner

1. "The Petroleum, or Rock Oil of Canada," pp . 29-31.

"The Flowing Wells of Enniskillen, and the Impor¬
tance of Finding a Market for Canadian Petroleum in
Europe," Manufactures for Upper Canada, II (Mar.,
1862), 66"! [Hereinafter referred to as "The Flowing
Wells"]. Alex. S. Macrae, "The Oil Springs of America
and Canada," Manufactures for Upper Canada, II (Mar.,
1862), 89-90. [Hereinafter referred to as "The

Oil Springs"].

2. "The Flowing Wells," p. 66.

3. "Alex S. Macrae’s Circular for September," Manu~
factures for Upper Canada, II (Oct., 1862), 320.

4. "Oil of Asphaltum for the Preservation of Boilers,"
Manufactures for Upper Canada, III (Mar., 1863),

96.

208

to rival that as an illuminant but it is representa¬
tive of a whole host of minor uses. It was felt that
petroleum would be important as a source of residue to

serve as a substitute for India Rubber in producing pic-

pure frames and medallions . Other minor uses were as

2 3

a source of a new anaesthetic "rhigolene” , leather blacking,

and a waterproofing for leather. Perhaps the most unusual

application, particularly so in the mind of many today,

was its use in oiling the sea to calm the waves in
5

storms. The Oil Districts of Canada credited petroleum

with being "a useful stimulant to torpid bowels, promoting

in such a temperament the alvine discharge.” A. Norman
Tate gave a very comprehensive treatment of petroleum in

1. ’’Petroleum Residuum a Substitute for India Rubber,”
Manufactures for Upper Canada, V (Oct., 1865), 280.

2. "A New Anaesthetic - Another Use for Petroleum,”
Manufactures for Upper Canada, VI (July, 1866), 196.

3. "Petroleum Blacking,” Manufactures for Upper Canada, V
(Aug. , 1865) , 217.

4. "Paraffine Water-proof," Manufactures for Upper Canada,
VII (June, 1867), 165.

5. "Oiling the Sea,” Manufactures for Upper Canada, VII
(May , 1867), 138.

John F. Tyrrell, The Oil Districts of Canada (New
York: The American News Company, 1865), p. 32.

209

his Petroleum and its Products (1863). Amongst the

various uses mentioned by Tate were the production of

"pavement”, "roof covering", and a gas which could be

compressed and put into cylinders.

One of the most compelling reasons for promoting
the varied uses of petroleum was to stimulate capital
investment in the industry. In 1861 the agents of the
Canadian Native Oil Company conducted a thorough investi¬
gation into all aspects of the oil industry in Canada.
Their activities raised considerable interest in the
press and were followed by the publication of a pamphlet,

including a stock prospectus, on the oil industry in
3

Canada. The pamphlet, The Canadian Native Oil, did
not present any new uses for petroleum but it is a
good example of the optimistic and enthusiastic litera¬
ture associated with the oil industry in the 1860s.

One naturally expects to find a certain ’official
optimism’ in any company or stock promoting publication
but the optimism in The Canadian Native Oil is one that

Tate ,

Petroleum ,

P-

•

Tate ,

Petroleum,

P-

61.

3. Canadian Native Oil Company, The Canadian Native
Oil: Its Story, Its Uses, and Its Profits: With

Some Account of a Visit to the Oil Wells (London :

Ashby 6 Co . , 1862 ) . [Hereinafter referred to as
Canadian Native Oil]. It is a work of 52 pages
followed by a four page prospectus for the company.

210

was shared by a large portion of the Canadian public.

The discovery of the apparently inexhaustible
supply of mineral oils in Canada and the States
of North America can scarcely be over-rated in
a commercial point of view. 1

Although a wide spectrum of commercial products
was anticipated the petroleum industry in Canada settled
for a single line of product development. One of the
consequences of pursuing only one type of finished pro¬
duct was that much of the petroleum was wasted unnecessarily.
Petroleum, a mixture of hydrocarbons, is never found pure.
"Materials other than hydrocarbons are considered impuri¬
ties by petroleum refiners even though they are as much

a part of crude oil as the hydrocarbons." In 1860 an

anonymous writer left a definition of pure oil. "When

I say pure oil, I mean that it was entirely free from

water ... having only ten to fifteen percent, at most, ...

of impure substances mixed with it." It then appears

to be neither surprising nor wasteful to learn that

Williams’ loss in preparation was about 20%. The figure

1. Canadian Native Oil, p. 12.

2. Purdy, Petroleum, p. 66.

3. Smith , S25-20, July 19, 1860. The initials of the
author are J. A. Jr.

4. Free Press, Aug. 5, 1859. It is verv doubtful that the
loss is as low as 20%, twice that is probably more
realistic especially if he was seeking only. an illumi-
nant. Robb, "Petroleum Springs," p. 316 gives a'
figure of 30 to 35%.

■

211

quoted is only for the initial distillation and one
might therefore expect the final figure to be higher.

The Shaw distillation apparatus was held in high repute

and it gave fifty per cent illuminating oil; rthe re-

maining fifty per cent is all lost." There were pro¬
bably very few whose useable distillate was as low as .

50% of crude but none who got 100% as some seemed to
think possible. The Petrolia Refining Company was
credited with producing from first distillation ’’ten and

©ne half per cent of benzole and fortv two and one half

per cent of oil fit for illuminating purposes.” It was

added that "the balance consists of oil which may be used

for lubricating machinery, and of refuse, from which ...

Mr. Hugh Shaw has discovered a method of extracting paints
3

and dyes.” There is no evidence to suggest that the balance
was utilized. Standard practice seems to be reflected
in the statement that

1. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862. It is only fair to note that
his equipment could be modified so as to yield
other products .

2. Globe, Sept. 12, 1861. In another, earlier, descrip¬
tion a gas vent pipe is described; benzole would be
lost through the pipe unless it were modified, see
Globe , June 25, 1861.

Globe, Sept. 12, 1962.

212

no use is made of the benzole which is allowed
to escape, and the refuse oil finds its way into the
creek. A black substance, very much like coal,
accumulates in the stills and is burned in one or
more of the stoves of the establishment . 1

The "benzole” and the "refuse oil" could also have been

saved and used or sold but careful attention to reducing

waste was not a major concern of refiners in the early

l860s .

When the Canadian Native Oil Company agents were

conducting their research they seemed rather pleased with

the work of two refiners, Messrs. Adams (the English Co.)

at Petrolia and Mr. Bush of Enniskillen. The yield of
Adams was 25% of white refined oil, 20% of lubricating oil
and 15% of mineral turpentine for a total of 60% of crude
converted into usable products. It was optimistically re¬
ported that the company was conducting experiments in
England to increase these figures and that the 15% of
mineral turpentine, when sold, "pays the cost of all the

crude oil, and the expense of manufacture employed for

other products." From 25 barrels Bush was able to produce

1. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862. The refinery is referred to as
that of Messrs. Adams and it is therefore not clear if
this refers to the English or the Boston firm.

2. Montreal Herald, Oct. 22, 1862. I did not systemati-
cally search the Montreal Herald but found a reference
to the article in some papers in the Smith collection.

3. The statement is perhaps true under optimum conditions
but these were rarely found in Canada.

213

barrels of benzole (10%), 123§ barrels of refined

white oil (50%), and 3 barrels of yellow oil (12%) for

a total of 18 barrels (72%) of marketable product. Bush

pleased the Canadian Native Oil Company agents because

he utilized his waste but he probably did little more than

use approximately two gallons (8%) as fuel and discarded

the remaining 20%.

Thinking up uses for ’waste products' was a mid¬
nineteenth century preoccupation but utilizing these ideas
was an avenue not quite as passionately pursued. The
constant references to waste products going into the air
and water tend to support this argument as do the recurring
complaints that Canadian refiners were interested only
in an illuminant. It is probably safe to say that the
yield of commercially usable product from crude in Canada
during the early 1860s, and probably throughout the decade,

1. Montreal Herald, Oct. 22, 1862. It was claimed in

the "Herald that "Mr. Bush made 7 barrels of waste,
which, however, is used as fuel to carry on the
refinery, but the tarry portion of the refuse
(about two-thirds) may be utilized as a black paint
when mixed with No. 1 for coloring iron goods, engine
works, outdoor fences and buildings; the other
third, which is like a solid asphalt, or bright
black powdered gum, will, it is said, make a
beautiful varnish when mixed with turpentine.

214

was 50 to '60%. It could have been more but few seemed

to be interested in the necessary mental and physical

activity necessary to bring about a higher yield.

In spite of the fact that numerous other products

and uses were expected it was as a source of an illuminant

that petroleum was to rise or fall.

Before the intense commercial development of Canada

West crude petroleum began it was said that the Indians

had been acquainted with it for a long time and "even

the white inhabitants have used it in its crude state for

burning in lamps , for strains in the legs of horses and

for lubricating coarse machinery." Tripp was

1. The Canadian News, Feb. 7, 1867, p. 85 claimed
that "Bothwell oil yields 75, Petrolia 66 2/3
... per cent, of refined oil.” These might be
a bit high, especially that for Bothwell. The
eptiome of optimism and gullibility comes in the
1880s with Thurston G. Hall and his promise that
"three barrels will be made out of one of crude."

See Observer, June 5, 1885. Hall established his
business in the old Dominion Oil Company refinery.

In doing this he was , unknown to the people of
Sarnia, carrying on the fraudulent tradition
started by the Dominion Oil Company. Hall generated
a great deal of excitement in Sarnia, including

the day on which it was announced that "The Electric
Process for Refining Petroleum Collapses." See
Observer , Oct. 21, 1887.

2. Free Press, Jan. 27, 1859.

215

authoritatively advised of the lighting potential of

his Enniskillen "asphalte” but it is not known if or

to what extent he pursued it. Williams was definitely

aiming at producing an illuminant. When, in 1858, a

newspaperman got a sample of the mineral oil of

Enniskillen he commented that it

has a strong pungent smell, but a piece of rag
or paper, dipped into it and afterwards ignited,
burns with a strong light emitting, as a matter
of course, on account of the impurities in the
article, a dense black smoke. M1

Despite such an unpromising trial the reporter defended

the new illuminant. "If clarified, however, we see

no reason why it should not make a splendid lamp oil.”
There might have been an element of boosterism in the
report but such is far from a complete explanation. His
proposal was in harmony with the existing technological
milieu and accomplishments. The distillation of organic
or bituminous mineral substances to produce hydrocarbon
oils and gases for illumination was not new to the 1850s
nor was it new to the British North American colonies .
There was also a need for a safe illuminant which did
-not have an overly unpleasant odour.

1. Free Press , Aug. 26, 1858.

2. Free Press , Aug. 26, 1858.

216

Tallow was very malodorous but it was cheap.

Fluids of animal and vegetable origin had been getting

increasingly expensive thereby preparing the way for

new illuminants . Coal oil was one of the new products ,
but was less readily available and more expensive than
camphene. Camphene, rectified turpentine and alcohol,
was extremely volatile and left a frightful toll of dead

and injured in the wake of its numerous explosions and
fires. Many newspapers and journals launched attacks
against the sorry state of affairs, correctly identifying
the culprits as human carelessness, gullibility and un¬
scrupulousness, the basic unsuitability of camphene as
a domestic illuminant and the poor design and construction
of lamps. A lamp burning a volatile and potentially
explosive fluid cannot be rendered completely free of

danger but the danger may be minimized by making a well

constructed lamp which burns a safe fuel.

1. A product made from the destructive distillation of
coal, coal shale, Boghead mineral or any number of
similar materials. The name coal oil was frequently
to refer to petroleum illuminating oils.

2. Loris S. Russell, A Heritage of Light: Lamps and
Lighting in the Early Canadian Home TToronto: Univer-
sity of Toronto Press) is an excellent introduction to
the development of lamps and illuminants. To see to
what a great extent safe lighting fluids and lamps was
a topic of concern one would be well advised to begin
in journals such as Scientific American, Journal pt the
Franklin Institute, Journal of the Royal Society of
Arts or any other similar journals.

217

Producing a ’safe' illuminant from petroleum pre¬
sented no real technological problems once one had the
crude and the refinery. It was merely a case of good
distillation techniques combined with a sense of moral
propriety overriding one’s desire to maximize profits no
matter what the consequences. The higher the flash
point or fire test of the lighting fluid the safer it
was , but this was achieved by distilling off the more

volatile fractions thereby decreasing the yield of salable
1

product and profits. With few exceptions., unsuccessful
self-policing and ’buyer beware’ were the rule during the
18 6 Os .

But a safe product is not necessarily a socially
acceptable one and, to put it crudely, petroleum products
stank. Much of the pungent odour common to various tvpes
of petroleum is lost as the volatile fractions are dis¬
tilled off. Lambton crude had a special liability. There
were some who felt that the smell was not a real liability
because petroleum oils sold at a lower price than other
illuininants and one soon became accustomed to the odour.

At first the smell was overpowering, now it is
unnoticed; whereas, from want of use the smell

1. It should be kept in mind that the lighter fractions
were generally discarded.

218

of tallow burning, as a candle extinguished, is
to those once habituated to the smell of oil
infinitely more, disgusting than oil ever was . 1

The same author advocated petroleum stoves. "Petroleum,

when burning, is not more offensive than soft coal."

Although some people felt that it was rather unnecessary,

ways were sought to make petroleum products less malodorous.

Deodorizing petroleum presented both technological and

ethical problems. Canadian oil producers felt that if

fortunes were to be made they were to be made in foreign

markets because the Canadian market was just too small for

the. large Canadian production. Throughout the 18 60s and
much of the 1870s Canadian petroleum exporters fought for
foreign markets and Canadian consumers suffered as a result
of the methods used. Oil to be sold in Canada was of low
quality and lower price. It might be argued that it was
only by these measures that Canada was able to compete with
the more suitable American oils marketed by large well-
organized firms. Whatever the reason for its existence,
this seemingly unfair marketing system did help Canadian

1. Canadian News , April 20, 1865, p. 250.

2. The Leader , Oct. 1, 1861 - commented that there was
"little demand." Similar statements were to be
reported for many years .

219

oil overcome its bad name in international markets.

One of the recognized pre-commercial uses of
Lambton petroleum was as a lubricant. Lubricants
and illuminants were obtained from petroleum but pro¬
duction of the latter was on a much larger scale. By
the 1850s 'the industrial world, a world which included
Canada, was badly in need of improved lubricants. It
is inconceivable that James Miller Williams, a former
constructor of railroad cars, was not aware of the need.

Williams' advertisements were not just for illuminating

oil but also for "machinery oil." Predating the earliest
known advertisement for Williams' oils is a statement in
the London Free Press claiming that "The International

1. The whole problem of the bad name of Canadian oil,
both refined and crude, is verv complex. Initially
it seems very clear but occasional pieces of evi¬
dence are to be found which raise rather serious
questions . Why was it that the Oil Springs Chronicle
of Jan. 22, 1863 quoted McCrae's Oil Circular,
Liverpool, Jan. 7, 1863, which stated "Crude,

Canadian L23 10S; American L21, same as for weeks
past."? The quotation is from Victor Lauriston,
"Uncertainty of Lambton Oil Evident in 1863", a
newspaper article from an unidentified source and
found in the Smith collection, Smith , S29-4. A
study of the marketing or petroleum is verv badly
needed .

Spectator, July 4, 1860. See also July 21, 1860
of the same paper.

220

Mining Company" had had its oil analyzed "and it was

found to possess illuminating and lubricating qualities

.of the highest order."

Williams engaged in a form of advertising other

than that in newspapers , namely showing his products at

exhibitions and fairs . With only a trace of hyperbole

one may go so far as to say that the 1860 Provincial

Exhibition in Hamilton was notable for two reasons. It

was opened by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales and it displayed

Williams’ oils manufactured from the Enniskillen petroleum.

His machinery oil was "noticed particularly for its

excellent quality as a lubrication oil, which will not

clog or thicken." Williams had a "still house for the

preparation of engine oil" but it was destroyed by fire
3

in 1860. Petroleum lubricating oils were not just
exhibition pieces . The Journal of the Board of Arts and
Manufactures for Upper Canada reported that "American and
Canadian railways" were using the "dark," i.e. heavy,

1. Free Press , Jan. 27, 1859. It is possible that the
newspaper is referring to the reports to be found in
Appendices B and C but no mention is made in either
of the use of petroleum as a lubricant. By 1859
Williams , who was not one of the original partners ,
controlled the company and might even have been sole
owner.

2. Observer , Sept. 7, 1860.

3. Observer , June 22, 1860. For engine, i.e. lubricating,
oil further refining after distillation was usuallv not
considered necessary.

221

petroleum lubricating oils.

It might appear that the production of lubricants

was an important part of the Canadian petroleum industry

but in fact most distillers and refiners discarded as

waste the ingredients necessary to produce lubricants.

One major refinery redistilled (’cracked1) the "heavy

oil" which " would be a good lubricator for machinery if

there was a market of demand." When Abram Farewell of

Oshawa commercailly produced a machine oil from petroleum

that would "neither corrode nor gum the surfaces upon which

they may be used" it was an event sufficiently unusual to

merit praise and attention. In 1869 the Canadian oil

industry in general was taken to task for, amongst other

things, the "utter waste" of burning the residuum as fuel

when "valuable lubricating oil and paraffine" could be

produced from it. Even more revealing is evidence such as
that found in a list of refineries in Petrolia in 1871.

"The Oil

Springs," p

•

Canadian

News ,

June

, 1866, pp. 374-375

Canadian

News ,

Oct .

1866, p. 210.

4 .

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

, 1869, p. 325.

222

Seven refineries were listed as operating and their

weekly capacity was given. One of the seven was said

to be making a lubricating oil. In none of the ethers
is any lubricating product mentioned, presumably because
they were making the usual illuminant and the only one
worthy of special notice was the one doing something out
of the ordinary: making a lubricant.

The Dominion of Canada Oil Refining Company attracted
much attention in 1871 by its plan to use patent ’’pro¬
cesses for the manufacture of Canadian crude oil into

burning oil, lubrication for machinery, railway and

waggon grease.” The company continued to attract atten¬
tion, but more from the failure, as the following of its
plan. An agent, sent out from England by the English
shareholders to investigate the management and operation,
stated

that the whole project was a swindle; that those
who had invested their funds in it had been victi¬
mized; that the patent upon which it was intended
to operate, and to convert crude oil into burning
and lubricating oils of superior quality, and other
products, was worthless; that there would never by
a barrel of oil refined by the process, and that
the works would have to be converted into something
else . 3

1. Observer, July 20, 1871. Actually 8 were mentioned
but one was incapacitated, the usual state of the so-
called Mammoth Still of the Carbon Oil Company.

2. Observer , Mar. 31, 1871.

3. Observer, Nov. 15, 1872. Charges of fraud were even¬
tually laid, see Observer , Dec. 13, 1872, April 4, 1873,
April 11 ) 1873 , ancl April 18 , 1873 .

223

Eventually the property and plant of the Dominion
of Canada Oil Refining Company was ordered sold by
the Court of Chancery, a familiar fate for many oil ven¬
tures. The upset price was not met,

the machinery, made for the manufacture of
lubricating oil under Howell’s patents which
did not realize the expectation of the inventor,
accounted for the low bid.l

Canada's major market for oil was England. However,

contrary to expectation, petroleum did not take England

by storm. At a time when oil enthusiasts extolled the

virtues of Canadian petroleum, many English technical

■men were apparently unaware of or not interested in its

existence and potential. One of the leading British

engineering journals noted:

We have had several inquiries , which we are unable
to answer, as to whether the lubricating petroleum,
now so successfully used in the States, is sold
in England. It would be well for engineers to
experiment with some of the petroleum oils already
in the market, although, if the results should
prove unsatisfactorv , it would only show that the
proper quality of the oil had not been used. Of
the success of the lubricating petroleum in America
there is no doubt. 2

The journal was unable to create an interest in petroleum
lubricants. There followed no replies from indignant oil

1. Observer , Mar. 18, 1877.

’’Lubricating Petroleum,”
1866), 365.

Engineering , II (Nov. 16,

224

dealers - in fact there followed no replies -

nor did this journal in the years examined, 1866-

1875, have any comprehensive articles on petroleum

lubricants . Petroleum was being used as a lubricant

but its reception was slow and perhaps different from

that expected by many.

Despite hopes to the contrary petroleum had

to be mixed with other ingredients and could not be

used alone as a lubricant. The Dominion of Canada

Oil Refining Company was aware of this fact.

They will make "a golden machine oil,T of low
gravity and free from parafine wax, which is
to be used in mixing with lard, olive, sperm
and seal oils , and it is claimed that these
oils will be improved by the admixture of
the petroleum lubrication. Railway wheel
grease is to be made of the refuse. 1

During the 1860s numerous sources pointed out that

for all but the coarsest machinery, petroleum, crude

or distilled, was best when mixed with fatty

Observer , Mar. 31,

1871.

225

materials.. Those who expected petroleum to displace
rapidly the animal and vegetable lubricants were
slowly disillusioned. What was to take place was not
a displacement but a union in which the earlier pro¬
ducts were eventually reduced to the level of additives --
from major to minor but sill important components.

Understanding the role of petroleum as a lubricant
is aided, as is so often the case in studying petroleum
in Canada in the 1860s, by an accident report. In
Hamilton

. . . the Round House ... at the Great Western
Railway Depot .. was totally destroyed by fire.
The origin of the fire was as follows : -- One
of the workmen went into the shop to draw off
some crude rock oil to be mixed with other oil
for lubricating purposes , and having a light in
his hand, the gas ignited and an explosion took
place ... loss is stated at $15,000.2

1. See for example: Canadian Native Oil, pp . 43, 46;

Tate, Petroleum, pi 91 ; MThe Flowing Wells," pp. 66-
67. TTTe best article from the 1860s on the produc¬
tion of lubricants from petroleum that I can refer
the reader to is "Heavy Petroleum Oil," Manufactures
for Upper Canada, VII (March, 1867), 75-76. In some
cases crude was unmixed, see Canadian Mews , Oct. 30,
1862, p. 277, but I believe that this was a rather
rare occurrence and became increasingly rarer. The
article claimed that the Great Western Railway was
using crude alone but the event referred to by the
note below indicates they did not continue this for
long.

2. Canadian Illustrated News (Hamilton), Nov. 7, 1863,
p. 325. There were two newspapers calling themselves
the Canadian Illustrated News. The one quoted is that
published in Hamilton; it Is extremely rare and almost
totally ignored by historians.

226

In Canada during the 1860s and early 1870s, perhaps
later, petroleum was used as a lubricant more fre- ,
quently than it was sold as a lubricant. Many people
bought crude or some distilled product not suitable for
use as an illuminant and then mixed these with their
other favourites in ’secret' recipes. One might also
suspect that while petroleum was serving its apprentice-
ship in industry it was often an adulterant in more
conventional lubricants . In spite of claims and pre¬
dictions to the contrary it took many years before petroleum
lubricants were widely known and openly accepted.

The Journal of the Board of Arts and Manufactures
for Upper Canada proudly stated:

There is no record in the commercial historv
of this or any other country in the world of a
natural product or an article of manufacture
becoming so generally known and appreciated in
so short a period as petroleum. 1

Statements such as these failed to take into account that

one should not expect people, set in their ways, to

change immediately upon the introduction of a new product.
One must also remember that no innovation is without its
disadvantages and this was certainly the case with
petroleum lubricants. During the early 1850s the first

1. "On the Progress of the Petroleum Trade," Manufactures

for Upper Canada, III (Aug., 1863), 247.

Canadian News , April 3, 1862, p. 219. Canadian News,
Mar. 30, 1865, p. 198.

227

and only company in Britain importing petroleum in

commercial quantities was Price’s Patent Candle Company.

In 1893 J. Veitch Wilson, author of Some Aspects of
1

Lubrication , was Chief of the Lubricating Oil Depart¬
ment of Price’s. It is clear from his book that the
acceptance of petroleum as a lubricant took considerable
time and that petroleum was sold clandestinely without
customer awareness.

Instead ... of desiring to conceal the fact that
Mineral Oils are used in the preparation of our
oils, we particularly call attention to it, as
we. believe that, when blended judiciously with
pure fatty oils of suitable quality, they enhance
the value of these as lubricants, reduce their cost,
add to their safety by reducing liability to
spontaneous ignition, prevent gumming on machinery)
and, to a large extent neutralize the chemical action
which fatty oils exert on metals . 2

Only once in the entire book did he mention using the

petroleum oils without blending. Hydrocarbon oil
lubricants were widely used in steam engines by the 1890s
and Wilson called

for the exercise of technical skill and dis¬
cretion ... in the selection of the most
suitable oil and in its special preparation
for the circumstances under which it is to be used. 4

1. J. Veitch Wilson, Some Aspects of Lubrication (London:
Waterlow and Sons, 1893). [Hereinafter referred to

as Veitch , Lubrication] .

2. Veitch, Lubrication , p. 6.

3. Veitch, Lubrication , p. 32.

4. Veitch, Lubrication , p. 7.

228

Wilson realized that those advocating the use of

petroleum lubricants had to consider the

prejudices (the word is used in no offensive
sense) and the habits of those who are
responsible for the lubrication of the machinery.!

The prejudices were not entirely irrational as lubrication

was more an empirical art than a predictive engineering

science. There were many factors and properties to
2

consider. In the absence of both "rules" and adequate
analysis and experience ’’the selection of pils for

machinery" was filled with "difficulty and uncertainty."

One example of some of the relative advantages and

disadvantages to be weighed before turning to a petroleum

lubricant is seen in the search for stainless textile oils.

Oils for textile machinery were ideally ones which would

not stain the textiles but no such oils were known and

therefore one had to compromise.

. . . although it is admitted that ordinary
mineral oils may be directly responsible for
the discolouration of goods, and that even the
finest mineral oils, when used alone, are diffi¬
cult or impossible of removal, it must not be
overlooked that, apart from the question of the
permanence of the stains , mineral oils are less
liable than fatty oils to produce the drops to
which, when they are thrown upon cloth, the stains
are due. For while mineral oils have no action

1. Veitch, Lubrication , p. 18.

2. Veitch, Lubrication , pp. 19-32.

Veitch, Lubrication , p. 19.

■

229

on metal, and keep spindles and bearings clean
and free from gummy accretions , animal a.nd
vegetable oils, by their action on metal, and
by their oxidizing tendency, inevitably pro¬
duce the black drops of oil impregnated with
metal which are periodically thrown on the cloth, .
and cause the ineradicable stains ...1

The decision as to which lubricant to use was not easy
to make nor is it easy to make today. For the purpose
of this thesis the essential point is that petroleum was
not an immediate success . Eventually petroleum upstaged
but did not eliminate other lubricants. The ways in
which and the rates at which petroleum became the centre
of the lubrication industry is an area of study which
cannot be examined here but it is one which when
thoroughly researched will reveal a great deal about
machinery and bearing design and attitudes towards and
knowledge of friction losses.

Along with its use as a lubricant petroleum also
has a long history as a medicine. Throughout the period
under consideration there are numerous general state¬
ments regarding its virtues in overcoming some of the

many maladies on which quacks and medicine men made their
2

‘ * fortunes ’ .

1. Veitch, Lubrication , pp. 39-40.

One of the great problems in dealing with the
medicinal use of petroleum is that patent and nostrum
medicines rarely listed their ingredients.

230

Around the diggings , it is extolled as a
specific for catarrh, coughs, rheumatism, and
as a liniment for sprains and bruises. 1

More specialized uses included ’’curing the itch” and

"disinfecting the patient’s clothes" and serving as a

pain killer in dentistry. Montreal provided a good

example of the enthusiastic optimism directed towards

petroleum the medicine. In one Montreal hospital a

special ward was established for the use and study of

petroleum’s medicinal values and virtues. However, the

medical observations that probably did the most for the

petroleum industry were not those saying that petroleum

did good but simply that it did not do harm.

Mr. Forwood, a member of the Liverpool Dock
Board, stated ... that he had visited several
of the principal petroleum stores, and amongst
them were some appropriated to the storage of
Canadian petroleum, which it was known was of
the most offensive character; but he passed
through these stores with less inconvenience than
he expected .... He was also very much struck
with the appearance of a very stout man employed
in gauging this petroleum, and he said that he
slept well and ate well, and was anything but a
proof of the injurious nature of petroleum. 5

Canadian Native Oil, p. 19.

"A New Use for Petroleum," Manufactures for Upper

Canada, V (June, 1865), 163.

Canadian News, March 7, 1867,

P-

148.

Canadian News, Sept. 4, 1862,

P-

148.

Tate, Petroleum, pp. 104-105.

231

The use of petroleum as illuminant, lubricant
and medicine bridged the gap between pre-commercial
and commercial utilization of Ontario petroleum. As
more attention was directed towards possible uses of
petroleum many promising applications appeared.

One of the principal uses of petroleum today is
as a fuel for engines: internal combustion, jet, and
turbine, but not steam. It is true that by the 1860s
there were internal combustion engines but these were
largely experimental and peripheral, not to mention
generally unsatisfactory. Petroleum, seen by many as a
naturally produced coal derivative, was regarded as a
coal 'and/or other bituminous substance substitute. One
of coal’s most important industrial uses was as a fuel in
steam engines and it is not surprising that petroleum was
used as a fuel to generate steam. Petroleum seemed to be
the ideal fuel for Canada.

One need not have been a very acute observer of the
colonial scene to realise that Canada had no coal: too
many pointed out this sad fact of life. When commercial
petroleum development started, most wished it were coal
and not petroleum. England had coal but no petroleum
to speak of. Canada had petroleum, no coal, and a fuel
crisis. The "twin skeltons" in Canada’s closet — severitv

232

of climate, and lack of coal -- were largely responsi¬
ble for Canada’s rapidly depleting wood supplies with

a resultant price increase. Given these conditions one
would expect to find differences in the reception given
to petroleum in Britain and Canada.

Some hope was expressed and various projects were
undertaken to encourage the use of petroleum as a domes¬
tic fuel, primarily in the* form of ’artificial fuel’

made by mixing crude '-or- refuse oil with substances such

as clay of sawdust. Petroleum was not the only ’innova¬
tive fuel’ being tried; the 1860s witnessed considerable
interest and investment in peat as fuel. The leader in
the peat fuel movement was James Hodges , builder of the
Victoria Bridge. Both movements trusted to economy and
convenience to guarantee success and both had rather
marginal success at best. There were no major reliable
announcements of the success of peat and petroleum fuels

Canadian

News ,

Aug.

30, 1860

, p . 131 .

Canadian

News ,

Jan .

23, 1868

, p . 58.

Canadian News ,

Mar . 12 ,

1868 ,

pp.

180-181.

Canadian

Native Oil

•

Canadian

News ,

June

5, 1862,

p . 361 .

Canadian

News ,

Oct .

30 , 1862

, p . 275.

Canadian

News ,

May

11, 1865,

p . 295.

A mixture of

Canadian

News ,

July

25, 1867

, p . 51 .

peat and crude petroleum is called for in this article.
Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

Many more references could be given. Artificial fuel
was a topic discussed a great deal in various
European journals.

233

but there were complaints that with all of their oil

Canadians still insisted on buying and using coal.

Petroleum held the greatest promise as a fuel for
military and industrial aDplications . The navy was most
interested in the potential of petroleum as a boiler
fuel but Canada had no navy. The navies of Britain
and the United States considered petroleum a most pro-
mising fuel and investigated it. Britain, with no
petroleum production, concentrated primarily on fdead’
or refuse oil while the United States turned mainly to
crude. The advantages seemed overwhelming -- greater
heat produced per unit of weight and/or volume with resul¬
tant increased range and/or space usable for other purposes ,
less time to get up steam, less fueling time, and fewer men
were required because there was no need for stokers . The
problems were, so it appears, greater than the advantages:
greater expense -- a point for acrimonious dispute --
greater explosion and fire hazard potential, and above all
greater combustion problems. It is also strongly sus¬
pected that vested interests and a general reluctance- to
engage in change in naval circles also played a not

Canadian News, Sept. 17, 1868, p. 179.

234

insignificant role.

In Canada, where there was no navy, it was as
an industrial and non-maritime boiler fuel that petro¬
leum was heralded. It was hoped that petroleum would
be used as a fuel for metallurgical and metal working
processes as well as a steam boiler fuel — fields '
normally calling for coal or wood. Petroleum was to

be the fuel of the future not only for working and
2

fusing metals but also for refining Canada’s undeve-

loped iron and copper ores. Verv little came of
either of these hopes.

Canadians were more interested in using petro¬
leum as a fuel for steam engines but even here there
•was more interest than success. Some refiners used
petroleum or petroleum residue as a fuel. There were
probably many who tried the new fuel -- petroleum --

1. Many experiments and articles were produced as •
a result of interest in the use of -petroleum

as fuel. All of the journals of the 1860s and
1870s consulted while researching . this thesis
had articles about the topic. A good but far
from comprehensive starting point for research
is J. D. Barnett, "A Partial Bibliography of
Petroleum,” Transactions of the Canadian Society
of Civil Engineers , I (October to December,

1887) , 45-47 .

2. "Oil-Lamp Furnace for Fusing Metals at a White
Heat," Manufactures for Upper Canada, IV (Oct.,
1864), 302-303.

3. Canadian News, Aug. 30, 1866, p. 131.

235

and at least one who tried the two new fuels -- peat

and petroleum -- mixed. The generally mixed success

of attempts at using petroleum as a fuel is best

typified by the results of two separate trials. Gart-

shore , a machinist in Dundas , failed while the firm

of Smith and Robertson succeeded. The basic problems

were those of economy and convenience, the former in

particular being dependent upon a great many factors.

The experiment of burning petroleum has been
abandoned for the present, at least at Mr.

Allen's mill here ... the question to be decided
there was the question of economy in using
petroleum as a steam generator .... A week's
use of the paraffine crude oil has shown that
from five-sixths of a barrel to a barrel of the
fuel is required per hour to drive a forty horse¬
power engine, and this is considerably more
expensive than wood at $ 3 per cord ... the inven¬
tors are by no means convinced that they cannot
compete with wood at .the price named. In the oil
refinery and in Mr. Robertson's foundry, the
petroleum is still used, and still deemed cheaper
than wood at Guelph prices . . . the engines of
these places are twelve horse-power and about
two gallons per hour continue to drive them
satisfactorily. . . .

The failure of Mr. Allan's mill is ascribed
mainly to the form of the fire-box and to the
arrangement of the tubes or flues of the boiler.
The patentees claim that a very large proportion
of the caloric is wasted and Mr. Allan tells me
that he intends to have his boiler altered so as
to economise fuel, even in burning wood. The

Canadian

News ,

July

25,

1867 ,

P-

51.

Canadian

News ,

Dec .

19,

1867 ,

P-

387 .

—V

•

236

flues are straight, running directly from the
fire-box to the smoke-stack, without returning
through the boiler. The alteration Mr. Allan
proposes , and one which the patentees of the
petroleum injector think will entirely alter the
conditions of the comparison between wood and
petroleum as fuel, is the affixing of elbows to
the tubes or flues of the boiler, so that the
heat will pass from the fire-box to the rear end
of the boiler, thence return to the front, and
again pass through the flues to the smoke-stack.

In this way the flame will be brought in contact
with a much larger heating surface and far less
of it escape up the smoke-stack. When we take
into consideration the distance through which the
flame of the burning petroleum will travel, there
is no doubt that a very great saving can be
effected in this way ....

.... when the combustion of the fuel is going
on favourably, the smoke from the smoke-stack is
almost imperceptible; but very frequently during
the experiment in Mr. Allan’s mill, large volumes
of dense black smoke issued from the stack, showing
that a large proportion of the carbon of the oil
was passing off unconsumed. Elongation of the
flues, or the addition of the elbows to convert
them into return flues , will have a tendency to
correct this difficulty .... Another fact, which
Mr. Robertson has noticed, is that his foundry
when the petroleum is supplied a little more
rapidly than usual, the smoke-stack becomes heated
to a red heat, demonstrating on enormous waste of
caloric in that direction. These are incidental
defects vhich can doubtless be remedied, if no
other or greater difficulties are developed.

So far as I can learn here, no trouble has
been experienced from the clogging or obstruction
of any part of the apparatus bv the refuse matter
of the oil. In fact, the machinery is so simple
that there is not much which liable to get deranged...
the injecting tubes, steam pipes, retort, Sc., all
work in a perfectly satisfactory manner. Mr. Allan
finds but two objections, one of these the increased
cost as compared with wood; and the other, the smell
arising from the oil. This latter might become a
serious one in a flouring mill .... Another diffi¬
culty that has been experienced in some attempts

237

at using petroleum as a steam generator is the
obstruction of the flues or tubes of the boiler
by the refuse of the oil after burning. Careful
inquiry here fails to detect any trouble of this
kind. The engines at the refinery and at the
foundry have been driven for some time with the
petroleum, and no such trouble has been experienced.
On the contrary, the patentees claim that the flues
are cleaner than when wood or coal is used . . . the
engineer has very decided objections to the disa¬
greeable smell, and to the grease and dirt insepara¬
ble from handling the oil, and prefers wood for these
reasons alone ....

.... The petroleum injector is a success, so
far as the simple burning of the oil is concerned;
it may yet prove that oil should supersede wood and
and coal as fuel , where the former is abundant and
the latter can only be obtained at high prices from
the cost of transportation, limited supply, or any
other causes . 1

The most highly publicised experiments using

petroleum as a steam boiler fuel were those conducted in

search of an economical railway locomotive fuel. With no

native coal in Ontario or Quebec and low-priced wood on

railway lines becoming rarer some thought petroleum might

be a fuel as well as an item of freight. As in most of

their dealings with petroleum Canadian railroads could

be counted on for more rhetoric than action. With the

opening of the Great Western Railway branch from Wyoming

to Petrolia in late 1866 T. Swinyard , General Manager of

the Great Western, gave an encouraging after-dinner talk.

With regard to oil production and the various
uses to which the rich mine of wealth may be

Canadian News , Jan. 30 , 1868 , pp . 69-70 .

238

turned, I may inform you that the mechanical
superintendent of the Great Western Railway, at
my instigation is now making extensive experi¬
ments to bring about the use of oil for consumption
in our locomotives . I am perhaps a little premature
in making the announcement ....1

Initial experiments with oil as with peat were extremely
2

encouraging and yet the whole project slowly sank out of

sight.

Petroleum did not make it as a boiler fuel. News¬
papers, journals, and most significantly the patent re¬
cords show no lack of interest but they do point to diffi¬
culty in obtaining efficiently useful combusion, a pro¬
blem not uniquely Canadian. For clean efficient combus¬
tion an essential was much oxygen thoroughly interspersed
with the 'atoms’, i.e. fine particles or droplets, of
petroleum. Very frequently this was not accomplished or
when it was with machinery so complex as to be financially
and/or mechanically unworkable. The Canadian patent re¬
cords indicate a number of approaches to the problem. The

simplest was merely an open basin filled with burning crude

and fanned by an air blast. It was also possible to con¬
vert petroleum to a vapour outside the boiler and then

1. Canadian News, Jan. 17, 1867, p. 37.

Canadian

News ,

Jan .

10,

1867 ,

p . 17 .

Canadian

News ,

Oct .

29 ,

1868 ,

pp. 282-284.

3. Canada Patent Number 2273.

239

pipe it to the boiler surface with a flame spreader --

a necessity for long boiler life in the design being
1

referred to. Most of the patents were variations on

one main theme: vapourization and ignition within the

boiler (fire-box) aided by one or more of forced air,

steam, superheated steam, and the heat provided by the

burning of the petroleum vapourized.

But technical problems were not the only block to
the use of petroleum as a railroad fuel. Conversion to
petroleum from wood or coal was neither easv nor cheap and
was justified only if petroleum proved a cheaper fuel.

The problem was that no one could be sure that petroleum
would be cheaper. Prices and production fluctuated and
no one knew how long the supply would last. There was
also the additional problem that petroleum was only pro¬
duced in one part of Canada whereas local wood and
ballast coal were available ’locally’ in many areas.

As a major market for petroleum its use as a fuel

was a failure. On a lesser level, primarily locally and

in specialized but low demand uses, petroleum met a need.

1. Canada Patent Number 2268.

2. Canada Patent Numbers 2127, 2218, 2294, 2337, 2434,
2465 , 2477.

3. For an example of the use of petroleum in the fusing
of metals see ’’Oil-Lamp Furnace for Fusing Metals

at a White Heat,” Manufactures for Upper Canada, IV
(Oct. , 1864) , 302-30 3 .

240

During very difficult times the small markets helped
to keep the petroleum industry alive. However, it
was the major markets that the oil industrv was most
interested in.

Petroleum promised large quantities of illumina¬
ting gas without the need for coal. An examination of

Canadian patents reveals the hopes and the methods of
1

the faithful. It is possible to look at the basic methods

without careful scrutiny of the equipment. The simplest

plan was simply a retort in which the petroleum was to

be heated, vapourized and then presumably burned
2

immediately -- a patent in a class by itself for simpli¬
city, vagueies s and unworkability. Much of the ’gas' pro¬
duced would condense upon cooling to normal temperatures ,
a most unsatisfactory and potentially dangerous situation.
Another of the simple processes was merely to bubble
water (or its vapour) , air or illuminating gas through
petroleum or a product of petroleum thereby producing
an illuminating gas or enriching a pre-existing

1. See the following Canadian Patents: 1216, 1344, 1345,
2000, 2143, 2145, 2158, 2392, 2618, 2690.

2. Canada Patent Number 1297.

241

illuminating gas. However, a more sophisticated approach

was needed. Little hope was put in the above. Systems

had to be designed to operate at sufficiently high

temperatures to give a 'fixed’ gas, i.e. one which would'

not condense at normal temperatures. The gas produced
would then be mixed with that from other sources, either
water or wood. Of the various Canadian patents granted
during the 1860s for producing gas from petroleum none
attracted as much attention as numbers 1344 and 1345,
granted jointly to James E. Thomson, gas engineer, and
Henry Youle Hind, a Toronto professor of chemistry and
geology. The patents were for

1. See for example Canada . Patents 2143, 2145, 2158,

2392. See also "New Application of Rock Oil,"
pp. 286-287; "On the Carburation of Illuminating
Gas by Purified Petroleum, and on the Manufacture
of Gas From the Crude Petroleum of Canada and the
U.S.," Manufactures for Upper Canada, II (Jan., 1862),
1-4. [Hereinafter referred to as "Un Illuminating
Gas"]. The Canadian News , Nov. 19, 1868, p. 326,
points out the dangers of using that terrible pro¬
duct gasoline to produce an illuminating gas bv
bubbling the gasoline through water. For a scathing
indictment of the dangers of storing gas and air
mixed and of mixing them anywhere other than the
point of combustion see "Mr. E. B. Shears on
Petroleum Gas," Manufactures for Upper Canada, III
(Jan. , 186 3) , 5-6 i

See Canada Patents 1344, 1345, 2618, 2690.

242

An Apparatus for the Manufacture of Illuminating
Gas from Crude Petroleum, or Rock Oil.l

and

A process for the Manufacture of Illuminating
Gas from Crude Petroleum or Rock Oil. 2

The Thomson and Hind process offers a good example

of The initial enthusiasm and apparent success followed

by disillusionment and abandonment that is characteristic

of many projects using petroleum during the 1860s. The

process was the subject of numerous articles praising its

economy, safety, and odour-free bright light. It was

used in various hotels, inns, and factories and the

recipient of glowing testimonials. 1862 was a very good
year for the Thomson and Hind process and 1863 promised
to be even better as the process, equipment and product

1. Canada Patent 1344.

2. Canada Patent 1345.

3. Canadian Native Oil, pp . 38, 43.

Tate, Petroleum, pp . 48, 49.

Canadian News, Jan. 3, 1862, p. 6.

Canadian News , April 17, 1862, p. 249.

Canadian News, May 8, 1862, p. 293.

Canadian News', June 19 , 1862 , p. 393 .
u0n Illuminating Gas,M p. 4.

"Petroleum Gas," Manufactures for Upper Canada, II
(Sept. , 1862) , 272 .

"Petroleum Gas - Stevenson House," Manufactures for
Upper Canada, II (Oct., 1862), 304.

"Petroleum Gas - The St. Nicholas Hotel, New York,"
Manufactures for Upper Canada, II (Dec., 1862), 360-361.

243

were in such demand that a company was being formed
and then no more is heard. Hind, professor of chemistry
and geology, stayed in the news and published, Thomson
did neither.

The Thomson and Hind equipment was designed to

give private establishments their own physical plant for

gas generation, a move contrary to the then prevailing

system of centralized production and distribution to a

number of customers. Established gas companies were not

interested in decentralization but this is not to say that.

petroleum failed to attract their interest. Gas works in

a number of Upper Canadian towns and cities made experiments

and trials with petroleum. Initial experiments were very

encouraging and therefore followed by full scale commercial

utilization of petroleum as a source of illuminating gas.

The result was a product satisfying neither customers nor

coal interests and subsequent abandonment of the project.

As a source of an illuminating gas petroleum was
not a resounding success and the reasons are not clear but
include the uncertainty of supply, deodorizing problems,
fear of petroleum and a prejudice that was slow to die.

Canadian

News ,

J an .

22 ,

1863 ,

p . 52 .

Canadian

News ,

July

10,

1862 ,

p . 21 .

Canadian

News ,

Sept .

, 1862

, p . 164 .

244

But if the prejudice did not die neither did the hope.

In 1875 in Lambton County Ribighini and Anderson were

still working on making a gas from petroleum and in
1885 one of the promises of the fraudulent but pro¬
mising Alpha Gas , Oil and Refining Company was a cheap
gas .

The starting of this enterprise in our town will
be of great advantage in the way of fuel and light.
Fuel, which is so largely consumed eight months
of the year . . . when gas can be had for burning
purposes at one dollar per thousand feet, and at
twenty five cents per thousand feet for heating
purposes , it will be seen how advantageous it
will be. The reason gas can be supplied so cheap
it that by the new process, it requires but 4 per
cent of carbon to 96 per cent hydrogen and nitrogen
obtained from waste to make a first class gas for
heating and illuminating purposes. It can, there¬
fore, be supplied to manufacturers cheaper than
coal; and as an instance of this we might mention
that in Pittspurg, Pa., natural gas is supplied at
twenty cents per thousand and it is used in pre¬
ference to coal at $1.50 and $2.50 per ton. With
coal here at $6.00 per ton and heating gas at
twenty five cen:s per thousand the saving can
easily be imagined.

The oil to be manufactured is on the same economical
principle, as three barrels will be made out of the
one of crude, and it will be free from sulphur and
other elements which make our oil so much inferior
to the American. 2

Petroleum did not live up to its initial promises as a
source of an illuminating gas but there were other
promises .

1. Canadian News, Nov. 18, 1875, p. 837.

2. Observer , June 5, 1885*

245

During the 1860s and therefore coinciding with

the oil boom in Canada the most exciting developments in

industrial organic chemistry were those in the aniline

dye field. In Canada developments in organic chemistry

did not go unnoticed and in -this connection one name

stands above all others: Hugh Nixon Shaw. Shaw was not

the only one who believed that aniline, or benzine to.

synthesize aniline, could be extracted from petroleum.

However, not all were in agreement that aniline dyes

could be produced from Canadian petroleum and the leader

of the opposition was Professor Croft who strongly

opposed the optimistic Professor Hind. There is reason

to believe that at least one dye was produced.

The Canada Company employed for some time, a
chemist, in the hope that he would be able to
produce dyes. He did to some extent; and a
very fine and beautiful blue, which he produced,
is exhibited at the refinery. But he unfortunately

1. For an introduction to Shaw see Globe , Sept. 12, 1861.
Globe, Sept. 2, 1861, and Globe, Mar. 12, 1862. For
other expressions of a belief that aniline dves could
be or had been produced from petroleum see anv of the
following. Canadian Native Oil, p. 38, Oil Districts ,
p. 7, Canadian News , Nov. 9 , 1865 , p. 292~J Canadian
News, June 14 , 1866 , pp . 374-375 , Canadian News , Jan.

17, 1867, pp. 36-37, and "The Oil Wells Tn Enniskillen,"
Manufactures for Upper Canada, II (Feb., 1862), 61-62.
The Canadian News, May 11, 1865, p. 295 refers to a

red ink made inHamilton from petroleum but gives no
details as to how it was made.

2. ' Canadian News , April 10 , 1862 , p. 233 .

246

died, and his invention was lost with him.l

In his description of the Canada Rock Oil Company

at Oil Springs Alexander Somerville noted that

in the earlier operations at this refinery the
coal tar, instead of being re-distilled for oil
as now, was submitted to a different chemical
treatment in a laboratory which we see close by.
Crystals were obtained by the chemical process
and used in dying textile fabrics .... The
operating chemist at this laboratory died. The
company have not yet found another. Hence the.
laboratory is silent and the coal tar of the
petroleum stills instead of being transmuted to
brilliant dyes to add to the splendour of the
dry goods emporia, is re-distilled to obtain from
it the last possible extract of illuminating; oil. 2

There is nothing to indicate that during the 1860s

petroleum became a major source of aniline dyes but there

were other ways to use petroleum as a colouring matter.

The tarry residue remaining after distillation could be

and was used to produce a heavy black paint, particularly

3 ' ‘ 4

good for metal, and also to produce a leather blacking.

Most of the petroleum products used in paints and

varnishes were not used as a colouring, agent. The

lighter cuts of petroleum, those generally known as

benzole or naphtha, served admirably as paint oils,

carrying the pigment and then evaporating giving the

1. Oil Districts , p. 7.

2. Canadian News , June 14, 1866, pp . 374-375.

3. Montreal Herald, Oct. 22, 1862.

4. "Petroleum Blacking," Manufactures for Upper Canada,

V (August , 1865), 217. — —

247

same end .result as would linseed oil or turpentine.

The reasons for petroleum’s use in this manner are
twofold. The first is that there was a very conscious
search for uses for petroleum and its products . The
second was that it worked and was cheaper than turpen¬
tine or linseed oil, particularly during the American

Civil War years.

There were other uses for petroleum. Petroleum

was said to be "well adapted" "for the fabrication of

mastics and cements." The patent record indicates its

use as a wood preservative and an unidentified newspaper

1. Canada Patents, 1409, 1993, 2807.

2. For further information see any of the following:
Canada Patents: 1409, 1993, 2807.

Globe , Sept, 12, 1861.

Free Press , Jan. 27, 1859.

Spectator , Mar. 10, 1862.

Montreal Herald , Oct. 22, 1862.

Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

Canadian Native Oil, p. 19.

Tate, Petroleum, pp . 81-82.

Canadian News, Oct. 17, 1861, p. 148.

"Alex S. Macrae ’ s Circular for September," Manu¬
factures for Upper Canada, II (Oct., 1862), 320.

" Lubricating Petroleum as a Siccative Oil," Manu¬
factures for Upper Canada, VII (June, 1867), 157.

3. See Appendix B. The same report savs that the
petroleum is "admirably adapted for illuminating
purposes .

4. Canada Patents, 1342, 1695, 2492.

248

article in the Smith Collection states that as early

as 1851 Henry and Charles N. Tripp turned to the

petroleum resources of Lambton for "asphalt to seal

1 .
ship hulls . "

By the end of the 1860s much had been learned
about petroleum products and their marketability.

During the earlier part of the decade petroleum was
widely regarded as the source of an almost unlimited
number of products and applications. The utilisation
of petroleum, a ’new’ and exciting material, was the
subject of much healthy and enthusiastic but unrealis¬
tically optimistic speculation. In contrast with the
great expectations , petroleum anpeared to deliver very
little. However, when viewed in the context of the
technological sophistication and chemical knowledge of
the day, petroleum delivered a great deal. The industry
matured very quickly and concentrated on the production
of an illuminant, the only product that could give the
mining, refining, and marketing of petroleum the stable
base that it needed. Other uses and products continued
'"to play a minor but not insignificant role. The minor

Smith , S29-16. I have found no other references,
reliable or otherwise, to the use of petroleum
products in sealing ship bottoms.

249

uses provided little in terms of immediate economic
returns but held out the premise that, by combining
better knowledge in a number of fields with more
thorough and patient research, petroleum could supply
many products and fulfil many needs. The first decade
of the petroleum industry in Canada often appears to
be the disappointing tale of profligate and dissipated
youth. It was in fact a period of a somewhat chaotic
but nevertheless rewarding search for direction and
stability .

250

CHAPTER V

• STORAGE OF PETROLEUM

As a commercial product petroleum was new to
Canada. Before petroleum could be successfully extracted
from the ground, processed, and marketed it was necessary
to modify existing and to create anew processes and equip¬
ment. There was an acute need for innovation in the
storage of petroleum. Storage problems were uniquely
critical because, unlike other Canadian minerals, petroleum
was mined, transported, and sold as a liquid rather than
a solid. The result was that there were serious leakage
problems which had to be solved. The problems of leakage
and the general need for new processes and equipment gave
the Petroleum Boom in Canada a uniqueness which it shared
with no other Canadian mining booms .

It is easy to overlook the uniqueness because Lambton
displayed the normal social and technological signs of a
mining boom. Lambton was filled with men who laboured
under seemingly intolerable conditions and lived in
crowded filthy quarters. Their lives were brightened bv
visions of wealth and the visits of 'ladies’ who had been
advised that although the greasers smelled to high heaven

251

they had dollars. The oil men were living and
engineering from crisis to crisis, producing hurried
half-solutions and jerry-built structures based on
spur of the moment thinking. Much of their work, al¬
though clever and well thought out, was ruined by sudden
and unpredictable changes : storms which the foundations
were not strong enough to weather. The problems en¬
countered in storing oil and their solutions provide an
excellent example of what might be termed normal proce¬
dure in the development of oil technology in Canada. Out
of the many false turns and starts a workable technology
emerged .

As might be expected the earliest means of storage
was also the most primitive. There are many ways to look
at a surface (dug) well. First and foremost it is a means
of getting crude oil. Second, if constructed as such, it
is a means of ’controlling’ the composition of the product
in that it should keep out surface and ground water and
if it is constructed in such a fashion then it is also,
by virtue of its nature, a storage area. ’’Enniskillen
Blue" (Erie Blue Clay) is the tenacious clay ’goo’ res¬
ponsible for much that was said about bad roads in
Enniskillen. When the Enniskillen Blue w as puddled into

252

the space .between the cribbing and the natural sides

of the dug well the well was made virtually impervious

to water coming in through the sides. It should be evi¬
dent that a well does not provide adequate storage; there
are limitations on capacity but even moreso it limits pro¬
duction because most wells of this type would partially
fill naturally and the oil level would stabilize. It was

only when oil was pumped out that more petroleum would

flow into the well. In some instances the' wells were not

so well-behaved and although not gushers did overflow and

were out of control. It is worthy of note that when this
happened in one instance the first line of defence was
merely to increase the volume of the well, i.e. the con¬
tainer; "the clay which had been taken out in digging was

piled up to the depth of fully four feet."

After leaving the well the oil would ideally be
barreled for shipment. When the Lambton oil boom began

' 1. Water might come up through the bottom of the wells
and in at least one instance oil, under extreme
pressure, burst through the walls of the well. See
Smith, S 2 5-19 , July 19 , 1860 .

2. Globe , Aug. 9, 1861.

3. The Globe, Aug. 30, 1861, says that this was a fairly
common occurrence. See also Globe , June 25 , 1861.

4. Smith, S25-20, July 19, 1860. It is the Underhill
well that is being referred to; when storage capa¬
city was exhausted the oil ran into the creek.

253

there was not a cooperage in the area, a fact noted
and commented upon by many of the visitors who after
one visit became experts on ’things oleaginous' and pre¬
dicted that anyone opening a cooperage would have many
customers and make a considerable amount of money: they
were right and wrong. Eventually cooperages were estab¬
lished; eventually, because as with so much during the
early years of oil industry announcements and promises
went unfulfilled and projected completion dates were
extremely elastic.

By February of 1862 the town of Black Creek

(Oil Springs) had a cooperage turning out 1,000 barrels
1

per week. Wyoming was also listed as having coopererages

or coopers' shops by January of 1862 but these were pro¬
bably small low-production hand shops. Continuing opti¬
mism in the barrel market is reflected in the announce¬
ment that the 150 barrel per day factory of Messrs.

Sanborn and Co. was to be ready for operation "about

the first of July" ‘ 18 62 .

Storage problems continued even after the estab¬
lishment of barrel factories. The barrels leaked, they

1. Leader, Feb. 12, 1862. See also Canadian News,
Mar. 6, 1862, p. 151.

2. Globe, Jan. 8, 1862.

Observer , May 20, 1862.

254

could not be produced as fast as needed and the demand

was built on rather shaky foundations.

In January of 1863 the flowing wells stopped flowing
and many thought that the oil industrv was finished; it
was not; pumping was the answer but with both crude and
refined grossly over-produced the oil fields remained

rather quiescent for two years of "unfortunate stagnation."

Early in this slump the coopers had no illusions as to

wha.t this could mean for them.

On our way we passed a number of refineries and coopers’
shops. The owners of the latter till lately have had
more orders for oil barrels than they could fill in
time to meet the demands of their customers ; but the
demand is dying away , and they have fears that it will
cease altogether ere long; a couple of months or so
will tell whether their fears have any foundation or
not . 3

Their fears were well-grounded. For two years there was

no real call for barrels. When the petroleum industry

in Lambton recovered barrels were again in demand and in
4

short supply. The revival in demand came too late for
two enterprises which, with heavy investments in machinery,
had been formed for the large scale production of barrels.

1. The best discussion of the cessation of flow is
in the Times , Sept. 1, 1865.

2. Times, Sept. 1, 1865.

3. Canadian News , April 16, 1863, p. 243.

Canadian News, Oct. 5, 1865, p. 345.

255

The enterprises

came to nothing -- or rather to heavy losses
to the proprietors . The barrels could be
made and were made, but there was no oil to
put in them, and they were not wanted. As in
the case of the refineries , the whole of the
immense expenses had been incurred, and parties
committed to the enterprise, ere it was suspected
that the oil supply was about to fail. I can
only add, as in the case of the refiners, that the
business push and the energy of the men who went
into the undertakings in question, was well
worthy of a different result. 1

It was unfortunate but such were the results of

playing the lottery. Good times would and did come
again as would more barrel makers. The oil industry
needed barrels that were not expensive and did not leak.
Oil penetrated the wood much more readily than other
liquids and therefore the barrels leaked more when storing

,1. Times , Sept. 1, 1865.

2. The oil business was very frequently referred to
as a lottery. See, for examples, any of: Robb,
"Petroleum Springs," p. 316, Globe , Feb. 7, 1861,
Canadian News , July 3, 1861, p. 5, and "Petroleum
Wells of Pennsylvania," Manufactures for Upper
Canada, III (Oct., 1863), 305. The Observer ,

Mar. 30, 1866 informed its readers that "One
fifth of an acre in the rear of the famous
0f Grady well, opposite the Oxford house, which
sold for $2,500, is now set up as a lottery at
$1.00 a chance. It was a surface well but a
derrick and engine has now been erected on it."

256

petroleum than with other liquids . The demand for oil
barrels fluctuated and to succeed barrel manufacturers
had to cope with this problem. However, barrels alone, .
important as they were, were only part of the answer to
the storage problems .

That oil barrels were expensive there is little

doubt; $2.00 per barrel was the customary price in 1862

and remained so throughout the 1860s. Had the barrels not

leaked the price might have been somewhat more bearable

but in the early years of the oil boom leaking barrels

were the rule rather than the exception. Leaking barrels

help to account for some of the reluctance that railroads

and shipowners had about handling petroleum. The history

of the early years of the petroleum industry in Canada

West is filled with stories or anecdotes similar to the

two which are to be given here .

A party engaged in the oil business forwarded to
New York 1,000 barrels of oil by rail- in March
last. On its arrival there, he had to pay $20
for cooperage, and lost 300 barrels out of the
1,000 by leakage during its transit by the cars;
and had transit to New York taken place in warm
weather, the loss would certainly have been greater. 3

1. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

2. The reluctance is seen in refusal to handle oil,
a position frequently taken by shipowners, and by
the high rates charged by the railroads.

3. Canadian News , June 5, 1862, p. 354, based on a
report in the Sarnia Observer .

257

A vessel which carries one load of petroleum
is fit for no other business save coals, iron,
timber, or other articles which cannot be spoiled
by the odour. The Great Western . Railway has had
to pay for several car loads of flour which was
spoiled by being carried in vehicles which some
time before had contained oil; and it is said that'
a miller, having incautiously allowed a sample
barrel of the stuff to enter his mill, had his
flour sent back by his customers, on account of the
flavour which had been communicated to it.l

Tate (1863), in discussing the bad odour which

emanated from stored petroleum and gave it a bad name

identified the culprit not as the oil but the barrels,

"leaky casks and other unsuitable vessels" which allow

it to leak out, the loss in some instances being "as

much as 25 per cent." Once a ship or a railroad car had
been used for petroleum, particularly crude, it could
not be used to ship products whose resale value would
be lowered by having absorbed the odour of petroleum.

There were many reasons why the barrels leaked: part
carelessness and part inherent with the materials involved.
When the oil boom started producers had to take whatever
they could get and undoubtedly many of the barrels used
were of extremely poor workmanship and never intended
to hold anything as valuable or as liable to leak and

1. Canadian News , April 3, 1862, p. 219.

Tate, Petroleum, p. 104. Tate does not mention
glued barrels .

■

258

leave destructive tell tale marks as petroleum. Un¬
doubtedly many leaked not only because they had been
put together poorly but also because in the rush to
make barrels they were made of green wood. Oil could
pour or trickle out of cracks between ill-fitting staves
or through green staves but even in well made barrels
oil could be absorbed into and work its way through,
tightly fitting staves of good wood. Oil was an unusual
product requiring special measures. One of the measures
was simply using the most suitable wood. Unfortunately
most suitable did not equal most readily available. Pine
and oak were the woods commonly used; Lambton county was
covered with beautiful oak forests but was virtuallv de¬
void of pine. Pine staves were less permeable than oak

but were more expensive and more difficult to obtain.

One way to deal with leaking wooden barrels was

not to use them but rather to use metal containers. As

early as 1862 this was proposed for use in Canada but
2

to no avail. In England a Mr. Cope got somewhat further

1. For a short description of barrel-making machinery
and a discussion on the merits of oak and pine see
"Home Manufactures - The Eastwood Barrel Factory,"
Manufactures for Upper Canada, III (Aug., 1863), 248.

Canadian News, Oct. 30, 1862, p. 279.

259

as he patented and apparently produced a few of his

Patent Iron Drums but the idea never really made any
impact in the 1860s.

Wooden barrels had to be improved, not abandoned.

One of the most radical proposals for preventing oil

seeping through the pores of the wood was to make a

pressboard or laminated pressed wood barrel. The barrels
never went into production. Another unimplemented sugges¬
tion was that hermetically sealed barrels could be pro¬
duced by acting in accordance with the dictates of nature.
"The impermeability of the wood is accomplished by having
the annular layers concentric in the package as they are
in the tree" rather than by "cutting the annular rings

1. Tate, Petroleum , pp . 97-98.

2. The barrel was described as being "made of thin
slips of wood, similar to shavings, and laid up
in the form of cylinders; the slips . crossing
each other at right angles and running around a
certain portion of the circumference of the
barrel in a spiral manner, and fastened with
glue and water-proof cement .... Hoops were not
necessary to hold the barrel together, but in
some cases hoops were fastened to the inside
circumference to strengthen it where much rough
usage was anticipated." See "Staveless Barrels,"
Manufactures for Upper Canada, VII (Mar., 1867),
79.

260

in lengths equal to the thickness of the staves."

There were other proposals, some of which were satis¬
factory.

The most acceptable solution to the problem of
leaking oil barrels, albeit not a completely satisfac¬
tory one, was rather simple. Good oil barrels leaked
when the oil impregnated and soaked through the pores
of the wood. The problem was rectified by coating the
inside of the barrel and impregnating the* wood with a
glue which was not petroleum soluble. The earliest

Canadian patent for such a process is that given to

Otto Rotton of Kingston in 1866. However, there is more
substantial evidence that glue coated barrels were used
for storing and transporting oil in Canada as early
as 18 6 3 .

One of the potentially valuable but as yet un¬
tapped sources for the history of technology in Canada
West in the 1860s is the scattered writings of Alexander
Somerville on industry in Canada. One of his articles
deals with the mechanized production of barrels at.

1. "Hermetic Barrels," Manufactures for Upper Canada,

V (Feb. , 1865) , 53 .

2. See Canada Patents, numbers 1968, 1969. 1970, 1976,
2060 y 2110. Dr. Rotton, a Doctor of Medicine, seemed
to be quite fond of amassing patents relating to the
petroleum industry. I have not found a description
of his plant or any evidence as to whether or not his
processes were successes or failures or even if thev
were ever implemented.

261

Eastwood on the Great Western Railroad line four

miles from Woodstock, the line leading to Wyoming.

Here, barrels "intended for the reception of coal-oil

are charged with a glutinous compound, that is by steam

forced into the pores of the wood Unfortunately,

Somerville has not described the process other than to

say that it is dome by steam. Based on an account of

how barrels were coated and impregnated in Pennsylvania

it is probably safe to say that the function of the

steam was to heat the wood and/or act as a carrier for

the injection of the glue.

The glue impregnated barrel was often referred to
as the cemented barrel but whatever the name it repre¬
sented the height of wooden oil barrel technology through¬
out the 1860s. For example, in one of the many articles
suggesting solutions for the ills of the Canadian oil
industry the cemented barrel played a central role. The
proposal to establish in London, C.W: "a joint-stock
company for the purpose of manufacturing, by a new pro¬
cess, an entirely deodorized oil and air-tight cemented

1. "Eastwood Barrel Factory," p. 248.

Canadian News , Oct. 10 , 1867 , p. 228 , describes the
impregnating of barrels with glue by pressure in
TituS/Ville .

■

262

barrel in which to ship it" was greeted with laudatory
1

remarks. The cemented barrels were not perfect but
were the best at the time. However, barrels were ex¬
pensive and, cemented or uncemented, had a maximum capa¬
city of about forty gallons . Barrels could not be manu¬
factured locally in sufficient numbers to stay abreast
with the wildly fluctuating demand should they be the
major means of storage. The boom or bust nature of the
barrel business is illustrated by the fact that in spite
of increased productive capacity the local supply was

not enough , and during 1862 barrels had to be imported,

3,000 coming in one shipload. However, in 1863 there

was not enough work for the coopers.

In part, the scarcity and expense of barrels

turned the oil men to other means of storage.

... 24 round tanks capable of holding 130
barrels each, and 3 square tanks, capable
of holding 600 barrels each, have been built
and are nearly, full. The well owners have
adopted this expedient to save expense, it
being far cheaper to store oil in large tanks
than to pay $2.00 for 40 gallon barrels. 3

There were also other factors responsible for this

1. Canadian News , Aug. 30 , 1866 , p. 131.

2. Observer , Sept. 12, 1862.

3. Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

263

transition, namely space and convenience. Barrels

took up far too much room especially at a crowded well

site in the bush. Pumping from well to barrel is more

difficult and requires more constant attention than

pumping from well to storage tank and then filling

barrels as the need arises. For all of the reasons

discussed the large storage tank soon became an integral

part of the oil well and storage depot.

Bulk storage facilities were very quickly constructed
at the well heads , centralized depots for a group of wells ,
and at depots on transportation arteries , the latter being
the largest. The tanks were of the in-ground or under¬
ground as well as the above ground type and made of wood
and/or metal. Wood was more popular because it was
easily worked and readily available at a lower price than
metal .

The earliest underground tanks were usually square

or rectangular and of very simple construction: "pits

sunk in the stiff clay, cribbed and puddled". The size
varied considerably and many reporters spoke of them

1. If one sees the earlier surface wells as being
both source of oil and means of storage, then
the large tanks underground may be seen merely as
a displacement and an enlargement of a part of
the well.

2. Globe , Aug. 30, 1861.

264

being large, small, i.e. in rather uninformative

terms, or, as in the case of the twenty vats at Kelly's

wells "about the size of a small log house". A reporter

who visited the Canadian oil region in the late summer

of 1861 was more precise. The smallest dug tank that

he mentions is one capable of holding 120 barrels and

made at a cost of $50.00. Using $2.00 barrels the same

storage capacity would cost $240.00. A tank twelve feet

in diameter and twenty-five feet deep was ’also under
3

construction. This tank would have a capacity of about
17,600 gallons .

Returning to square tanks it is to be noted that

Mr. Sanborn built the largest tank in Oil Springs.
It is 20 feet square and 173g feet deep. Being
sunk in the ground it is puddled a thickness of
3 feet, and will hold 1,250 barrels, or 50,000
gallons . Two teams are employed in drawing to
it oil derived from the Blila well. 4

Covering the tanks seems to have been optional and one

description gives not only technical information but also

some insight into daily life in the oil regions.

1. Observer , May 31, 1861.

2. Globe , Sept. 6, 1861.

3. Gi°be ? Sept. 6, 1861.

4. Globe, Sept. 6, 1861. The well referred to was
a flowing dug surface well.

265

Huge- vats are occasionally constructed but
holes dug in the ground, well puddled and
cribbed with large balks of timber are more
generally used. The oil evaporates very
quickly and the proprietors seem very care¬
less about it and in many cases do not even
take the trouble to place a few boards over
it. The stench from these huge reservoirs of
oil is very offensive, especially when they
are being filled. It smells something like a
compound of onions and gas tar, and though the
residents of the place profess not to dislike
it, it well-nqigh poisons a stranger. The oil
appears to have penetrated everything about
the place. Water taken from the wells is most
nauseous. Folks in Toronto desiring to get a
slight idea of its flavour will step' up to the
pump on College Avenue by the side of the flag
staff and take a drink. The other day a boy,
five years of age fell into a surface well.

About two feet of oil floated on the top of the
water, and buoying up the poor little fellow, the
father was enabled to reach him. When taken out
he vomited a great deal of oil, but sustained no
injury from it, and was a few hours afterwards
running about as well as ever.l

Some underground tanks were covered and as time

went on they became more the rule, partly because open

tanks were more of a fire hazard. In 1862 one of the
larger tanks in Victoria (Oil Springs) was covered with
the result that the loss of oil and the odours emanating
from it were less than from the uncovered although it
was not completely free of these problems. It was

1. Globe, Sept. 6, 1861.

The Canadian News , June 25, 1868, p. 467, in
describing a fire indicates that there were open
tanks still being used.

266

described as a ’’large hole dug in the earth, about 40
feet square, covered with 2 inch plank, and made rain¬
tight, the inside is lined with six inch square logs,

behind which clay is puddled two feet thick to make it

oil-tight as well as water-tight; the depth is about 16

feet.” To this description a warning was added: ’’ . . .

you must take care when you open that 3 feet square trap

door in the centre of the covering, or the rush of gas

will almost suffocate you.”

Not all of the underground tanks were square or

rectangular, some were round. One round tank has been
2

mentioned. Another article refers to oil from a round

well seven feet in diameter; in the same article it was

mentioned that oil and water were being pumped into an

above ground circular tank. While newspapers and other

written sources indicate the existence of round wooden

tanks, both above and below the ground, they do not

adequately describe construction methods.

Two photographs , plates I and II , which were taken

1. Globe, Jan. 8, 1862. Later tanks were not puddled
for two as puddling less than that is sufficient.

2. See above or Globe , Mar. 12, 1862.

3. Globe , Sept. 6, 1861.

4. The photographs were formerly owned bv the late Col.
Harkness, former Gas and Oil Commissioner for the .
Province of Ontario, and are now held by W. D. Brittain,
Chief Inspector, Petroleum Resources, Department of
Mines and Northern Affairs.

267

in the early or mid 1860s give some insight into

the construction of above ground wooden storage tanks.

Of the two photographs , one of the Lick and one of the

Pepper well, the latter is the most informative. The

Pepper well photograph shows four circular tanks which

are of a height of seven to eight feet and with diameter

slightly larger than the height. The upper diameter is

smaller than the lower, the sides tapering in at an

angle of approximately five degrees. The tank is made

of upright boards four to six inches wide and of unknown

thickness ; the boards are encircled by horizontal bands

or hoops, presumably iron, about twelve to eighteen

inches apart. This general description also fits an

engraving of the Noble Wells at Petrolia. There is no
reason to believe that the description is not represen¬
tative of many of the tanks. There is also no reason
why this method of construction should be changed
substantially for below ground construction nor why
it should differ substantially from round cribbed wells.

1. ’’Oil Wells of John D. Noble, Esq., at Petrolia,
Ontario, Canada," Canadian Illustrated News,
Feb., 11, 1871, pp. 83, 84. The former page is
descriptive, the latter the engraving which does
not completely fit the description.

268

In an oil well near Aylmer, Ontario, which was

abandoned in 1865 the similarity between storage tank

and well construction is clearly evident. The sur¬
face portion of the well was dug and cribbed in a
circular fashion with a seven foot diameter. The
cribbing is of horizontal planks 4^ inches wide, 1 3/4

inches thick with bevelled ends tapering to a thickness
of 3/4 inch over a distance of 4 3/4 inches. The pur¬
pose of the bevelled edges is to allow the depth to
be increased by the addition of further planks without
using structurally weak butt joints. The banding had
partly rusted away and so little more can be said other
than it was not all one piece but made of a number of
pieces rivetted together with 1/4 inch diameter rivets
at 3 inch centres with a total overlap of '6^ inches.

The bending iron was 1 3/4 inches wide and 7/16 of an
inch thick with a cross-section. Similar

construction would have been used in a round storage tank.

1. For further information see David Hall, "Dropped
Money Down Hole in Elgin Boom," London Free
Press, Dec. 24, 1971, p. 26. I am not at liberty
to divulge further information about the location
of the well. The dimensions given in mv thesis
do not agree with those in Hall’s article. Hall’s
dimensions are estimates. My measurements were
taken by my brother Gary R. Ball and I when we
visited the site with Messrs. David Hall and Bob
Sherman. They were recorded and checked at the
well site.

269

A tank might have been only as deep as the length of
a stave but could be made deeper by using a bevelled
lap joint which is simple to make and reliable.

One of the problems pacing storage tanks and some
detail on their methods of construction is found in the
following .

THE BEST TANK YET! -- The seceritv of the weather
will doubtless put to the test many of the ground
tanks , and not until the frost is entirely out
of the ground will holders of oil feel perfectly
safe. It may then be discovered that a few cents
per foot extra might have saved considerable loss.
This remark suggested itself upon noticing an
excellently constructed ground tank at the Black¬
burn well, the rings of which being only about
half the usual distance of eight inches apart. The
storing capacity is something over 3,100 barrels,
and for excellence of finish this tank, we think is
unsurpassed, and justly entitles the contractors,
Messrs. Campbell and Kinnon, to the medal. 1

The rings are probably the iron bands or hoops encircling

the tank and designed to keep it tight and rigid, a

function that is extremely important in an area subject

to frost heaving.

Further variety in the methods of underground
storage tank construction is found in a report which I
cannot match .with a date or source other than Lauris ton’s
Lambton's Hundred Years (1949) in which he savs that he
is quoting an article "published many years ago".

Canadian News , Feb. 20, 1868, pp. 116-117.

270

•These underground tanks ... are circular in
form and can be dug to any required capacity, the
Erie clay of the district being especially adapted
to the purpose .... The clay is so compact and
impervious that it will hold oil or water without
leakage .

In excavating a tank, expert workmen trim down
the walls with their spades until they become
smooth, and when the hole is dug out they commence
at the bottom and ring it up with solid wooden rings.
These rings are formed of kants , which are pieces
of Canadian pine cut in this form of a segment of
a circle, and shaped just to fit the circular well
of the tank. They are from three to four feet long,
five inches wide, and one inch thick, and as one
man proceeds to nail them together and ring up the
tank, another follows him, putting on the next
piece so as to cover the joints, and so on until
they ring up the tank to the top. When completed
it is a pretty sight to behold.

This wooden lining is put in to prevent the
clay from caving in, but not to stop leakage, as
the clay holds the oil perfectly. These tanks have
been known to hold oil for ten years without leakage.
Another great advantage of this svstem is that the
oil is kept at an even temperature and that there is
no danger from lightning, which has caused so many
disastrous fires in other places to oil stored in
large iron tanks .

These tanks for storing the crude oil are
usually dug thirty feet in diameter and sixtv feet
deep, and hold about 8,000 barrels of 35 imperial
gallons to the barrel. The upper 20 feet of the
clay is not so impervious as the lower part. So
the blue clay is taken from the bottom of the tank
and puddled about one foot thick behind the wooden
lining, in the upper 20 feet, thus forming a
perfectly oil-tight tank. It is then covered with
tar paper between, and a coating of gravel on top . 1

Underground tanks, especially when covered, were the

1. Victor Lauriston, Lambton's Hundred Years: 1849-1949
(Sarnia, Ontario: Haines Frontier Printing Companv,
n.d.), p. 180. [Hereinafter referred to as Lauriston,
Lambton]. The method of construction is unusual and
I do not know if it was used during the 1860s.

•

271

least liable to become fire hazards and were commonly
found in refineries for the storage of crude and
refined .

To this point nothing has been said to indicate
that the storage tanks were anything but permanent
stationary installations and with the wooden underground
tanks this was no doubt the case. Although the evidence
is rather scanty there is some to suggest that some
above ground tanks were portable, particularly those
which were relatively small. In a report on one of the
many fires which plagued the oil regions the following
appears :

... we found Mr. Grey’s tank of oil on fire.

It burned with amazing fury and being close to
the derrick endangered the building. The boys
around proceeded with alacritv to haul off the
tank from the vicinity of the derrick, and after
sometime succeeded in spilling the contents, up¬
setting the burning vessels and quelling the
flames . 1

This, while far from the largest, was no small tank

as the loss is given as fifty barrels. Whether this
tank was on wheels or runners is still a matter of

1. Observer , July 13, 1866.

2. Observer, July 13, 1866. Much of the early
equipment seemed to be rather portable and
therefore probably quite small. The Observer ,
Oct. 31, 1862, reporting a fire in one refinery
notes that it spread towards that of Messrs. Bush
but "the refinery of Messrs. Bush pulled- down to
prevent the spread of the flames."

' Stjjs-* •. ' * m

272

conjecture but it seems highly probable that it was

provided with one or the other in order to facilitate

movement in the event of fire or if the well should go

dry and the tank be needed elsewhere. In an account of

the Shaw gusher (1862) it is reported that "empty tanks

were borrowed in the neighbourhood, and they too were

speedily filled."

Excluding for the moment all tanks but those at

the well head, some were designed to do more than simply

store oil. Most if not all of the wells produced an oil

and water mixture which would separate or settle into two

layers. In at least one instance two tanks were used,

one above and one below the ground. Water and oil were

pumped into the former and the oil ran off into the latter

after time was allowed for separation. Since all or
almost all of the wells produced water and oil in varying
proportions, separating arrangements were universal. It
was necessary to draw the oil off the top and drain or
pump away collected water.

1. Leader , Jan. 22, 1862.

2. The Observer, Feb. 6, 1863 tells of a well whose
daily production was "about 10 barrels of oil"
and "upwards of 100 barrels of water".

3. Globe, Sept. 6, 1861.

273

While • this chapter is intended primarily to look
at the means of bulk storage one event in the early
years of the oil region should be mentioned: the Shaw
gusher of January 1862. Although the Shaw and subsequent
gushers did not directly lead to any new developments in
storage they did give dramatic evidence of the need for
storage capacity on a large scale; they also supply some
idea as to what could be pressed into service in an
emergency .

The early settlers who scooped up small quantities
of oil set their own pace in gathering oil. It could be
skimmed from stagnant pools of water or from small holes
scooped in the ground. They gathered it when they needed
it’ and were not forced to handle the excess. With dug
surface wells the oil collected in the hole dug and again
could be removed at a pace set by the workmen with no
necessity to remove and store the oil. With the advent
of the gushers and flowing wells a whole new dimension ,
•was introduced. A gusher spews out oil uncontrollably,
thus setting the pace at which the oil is to be stored
if it is not to run to waste. Once controlled, a gusher
will often become a flowing well and is theoretically
completely under control so far as retarding the rate of

274

flow is concerned. In fact, it was not quite so simple

because it was felt that stopping the flow completely

might mean that it would not start again or if it did

• 1

start again it would be at a reduced rate of flow.

When the Shaw gusher came in all available re¬
sources were pressed into service but were insufficient
to prevent great waste. " ... conductors were laid to
adjoining wells which were soon filled with oil, barrels
were procured -- they were filled; empty tanks were
borrowed in the neighbourhood, and they too were speedily
filled" as the well "vomited forth a sufficient quantity

of oil to submerge the vicinity to the depth of several
2

inches." Had the creek not been frozen the oil would

have followed the course of some subsequent gushers and

floated down the creek and eventually made its way to

.the Sydenham and St. Clair Rivers.

1. Observer , Jan. 24, 1862.

2. Leader , Jan. 22, 1862.

3. John D. Noble tells how he became involved in the oil
industry. "I came here about 1866. The way my atten¬
tion was first called to the business was this: I was
a vessel owner residing at Kingston. A schooner came
back covered with oil and I asked the captain what was
the cause of it. He said they had struck oil at
Sydenham and could not stop the wells from flowing,
and that it was coming down the river a foot thick on
top of the water. I considered there might be some¬
thing in it, so I came here immediatelv to look into
the matter. What the captain referred to was caused
by the flowing wells at Oil Springs ... I . fancied
the place and bought some land." See Commission on
Minerals of Ontario, p. 159.

275

The gushers and the generally increased produc¬
tivity, particularly after the 1863-65 slump, combined
with the tendency of the oil industry to become some¬
what more stable and concentrated in the hands of fewer
but larger firms and individuals meant that storage
facilities expanded throughout the 1860s and 1870s.

Along with the increase in total capacity some changes
in construction methods. In the early 1860s tanks,
both above and below ground, were primarily made of
wood and in the case of below ground storage this proved
to be very satisfactory. There are puddled wooden tanks
still being used in Lambton county which predate the
memories of those living near them. Wooden above ground
tanks were less popular than the below ground puddled

clay and wooden tanks because the former besides creating

more of a fire hazard leaked too much.

Above ground wooden tanks were more susceptible to
the ravages of the elements, fire included, and were
supplemented and then replaced by boiler plate tanks.

The earliest mention of a metal component, other than
for hoops or banding, in storage tanks in the Canadian
oil regions was made in October 1861. This was a tank
"above the surface made of timber and inch boards , lined

Canadian News , Sept. 11, 1861, p. 85.

276

with zinc., and perfectly tight." As well as being

expensive, this type of tank would have been little

or no better than the puddled and cribbed underground

tanks and no more is heard of metal tanks until 1867.

In 1867 F. Bechell and Co. of Hamilton were "erecting

iron tanks to hold crude at Petrolia" ; they were of 1/4

inch boiler plate, the largest, twenty-two feet high

and fifty-seven feet across, to hold 10,000 gallons.

Earlier in the same year, in Petrolia, a *5,000 barrel iron

tank twenty-two feet in height and forty-one feet in

diameter was being constructed. It is clear from the
account that it is the largest tank to date and perhaps
the first of its type in the area. The step in this
direction seems to have been taken at the request of one
company and not to have started an immediate rush to
above ground iron tankage because in June 1867 Petrolia
had only 15,000 barrels of iron tankage, the propertv of

1. Canadian News , Oct. 31, 1861, p. 185.

2. Observer , Mar. 29, 1867. These were made so

as to hold six inches of water on top and it is
fair to assume that this is a precaution against
fire.

3. Canadian News , Feb. 14, 1867, p. 98.

277

Mr. David McLean’s Petrolia Oil and Tank Co. However,

progress in this direction continued and by 1873 the

"prodigious iron tanks" were a characteristic and note-

worthy feature of Petrolia ’s "suburb of Pithole" . By
1880 the pendulum had swung away from above ground iron
tanks. Belden’s Lambton Atlas of 1880 notes that in
Petrolia

the tanking of crude oil is now all underground.

The practice was formerly to store it above
ground in huge iron tanks. The Irorl Tanking Co.,
of Boston, have yet two immense iron tanks standing,
out of a large number formerly in use, the balance
having been utilized principally in the construction
of tank cars for the shipment of crude in bulk over
the railways. 3

The trend from barrels towards bigger storage
units was encouraged by and brought into creation one of
the specialized trades found in the oil fields: the oil

1. Canadian News , June 6, 1867, p. 362.

The Canadian News , Nov. 21, 1867, p. 327 gave the
total hiron and ground tankage" as 212,000 barrels.
The Canadian News , Jan. 16, 1868, p. 36 gave
234,000 barrels as the "aggregate tankage com¬
pleted, including iron and ground." The Observer ,
April 16, 1869 gives the amount of oil in storage
at 320,000 barrels.

2. Observer , July 4, 1873. The tanks were connected
to each other and to the wells by iron pipes 1^
inches in diameter and up to one or two miles in
length .

3. Quoted in Lauriston, Lambton , p. 179. I have not
seen the Atlas.

278

tank builder. However, there was also a need for
smaller, high quality, easily handled and stored con¬
tainers for shipping refined oil. By shipping re¬
fined, a finished product, in small high quality durable
containers the oil need not change containers from re¬
finer to final consumer or at least to retailer. It
was for this reason that after having good reason to
believe that the deodorization problem had been beaten
Qr at least subdued to an acceptable level, refined was
shipped from Petrolia and other refining centres to
the European market in five and ten gallon cans which were
not as leaky, messy, or dirty as wooden containers and
yet were far less fragile than glass. This method of
storing and transporting oil was being taken seriously
as early as 1869 when a tin factory was established in

1. I do not know when the building of oil tanks first
became regarded as a trade in itself. An article
in the Smith Collection, undated but from the
Sarnia Observer, contains the reminiscences of a
Mrs . Samuel Stokes as well as some information
about her husband. "Mrs. Stokes came to Petrolia
in 1869 at the age of 20 years and has since lived
here. In 1871 she was married to Samuel Stokes,
a well-known builder of underground oil tanks , who
was also active in the construction of the Sarnia
tunnel." From internal evidence it would appear
that the article was written some time in 1939; the
article is to be found in my files as Smith, S23-2?.

279

Petrolia to turn out five and ten gallon cans. The

money for this venture was coming from the Canada

Land and Mining Company, owners of a refinery in
1

Petrolia.

By the end of the 1860s satisfactory solutions
to the problems of storing petroleum had been arrived
at. Something akin to standard storage practice had
emerged from an apparently chaotic period in which
Canadian oil men successfully struggled with a member
of technological problems, one of which was how to
store an offensive smelling but valuable liquid. The
means of storage are impressive for their effectiveness
and simplicity. When necessary resources and technologi¬
cal sophistication are rather limited, as they were in
the Canadian oil fields during the 1860s, it is a great
accomplishment to produce engineering that is both
simple and effective.

Observer , April 16, 1869.

280

CHAPTER VI

SOURCES OF PARTS, MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Much of the present exploration and drilling
for oil in Canada is being carried on in rather re¬
mote and inaccessible areas. The logistics problems
thus created are severe but in some respects less so
than those faced in the oil fields of Canada West in the
early 1860s. Much of the equipment presently being used
benefits by being based on years of experience as well
as being made by specialists. The result is that the
probability of breakdown is small and in such an event
standardized interchangeable replacement parts minimize
down time. When considering logistics problems, distances
should be measured in units of time. When distances
are measured in this manner Oil Springs in 1861 might
be further from Buffalo than the Arctic Circle from
Petrolia in 1972. Viewed as an exercise in logistics
obtaining necessary parts , material and machinery involves
far more than merely making and buying them. One of the
essentials is a good transportation network and this the
Lambton oil fields did not have, particularly during the
first half of the 1860s. The oil men were no
different from any others whose aim is to produce a

281

well-run continuous industrial operation. Expressed

very simply, the oil men needed a constant and reliable

source of parts, materials and equipment.

When steam pumping and drilling was started in

Enniskillen in the winter of 1860-61 the mere feat of

getting a steam engine into the virtually inaccessible

oil fields was cause for considerable surprise. This
feat had been accomplished by sledding the engines and
boilers in during the winter. The state of the roads at
other times of the year made sledding in winter the only
feasible approach. Transportation facilities played a
crucial role in the availability of steam power. By
April, 1863 a forty horsepower engine made by John

Gartshore of Dundas was being used in the oil fields.

Moving such a large engine and boiler into the oil fields

was a major project and would have been almost if not

completely impossible if the plank road into the oil

fields had not been completed. It was well known that
engines were more expensive at Oil Springs or Petrolia

1. Canadian News , Sept. 11, 1861, p. 85.

2. Canadian News , April 16 , 1863, p. 249 .'

3. I have been unable to find any figures for the
weight of a forty horsepower engine but the Oil
Well Supply, pp . 11-13, lists the weight of a 15
horsepower . drilling engine and a 15 horsepower
boiler as 2500 and 4000 pounds respectively.

282

than at Bothwell because the latter had far better

transportation facilities even though somewhat lacking

in oil. In 1865 the steam saw mill at Bothwell was

powered by a forty-five horsepower engine, probably the
largest in the oil region and one which would have been
more difficult and far more expensive to put in Oil
Springs than Bothwell.

Steam engines had to be ’imported’ into the oil

fields. From the newspapers and journals 'the picture

of a rather thriving steam engine industry in the Canadas

in the mid 1860s emerges. The Canadian steam engine

industry met almost all of the steam power needs of the

oil industry although not always as quickly as the oil

men’s erratic demands might wish. Direct references to

the use of American engines are few. There is one

reference to engines from Buffalo and one to engines from
4

Erie .

On the other hand, there are more numerous references
. to engines from Canada with documentation to indicate that

1. Canadian News, May 18, 1865, p. 314.

2. Canadian News, May 11, 1865, p. 295.

3. Free Press , June 25 , 1861.

4 . Globe , Sept. 2, 1861. The report stated that the
engine from Erie, a six horsepower engine, "cost in
Erie $450., boilers and all complete.’' The Oil Dis¬
tricts , p. 19, gives the prices of the eight and
twelve horsepower portable steam engines as $550" and
"$840 c>r $850" respectively. It is not known if this
price included boilers.

283

they were being made in and coming to the oil fields

1 2 3 4 5

from Brantford, Hamilton, Dundas , Oshawa, Guelph,

6 7 8

Toronto, Chatam, and Montreal. The Brantford manufac¬
turer was C. H. Waterous and Co. Engine Works. By 1864
Waterous had been manufacturing steam engines for fif¬
teen years and their largest engine was for drilling and

pumping wells . Engines from Hamilton came from the shop

Canadian

News ,

Oct .

14,

1864 ,

P-

229.

Canadian

News ,

May

18,

1865 ,

P-

316.

2 •

Canadian

News ,

May

18 ,

1865 ,

316.

Canadian

News ,

May

25,

1865 ,

•

326 .

Canadian

News ,

April 16

, 1863

! 5 P

. 249

Canadian

News ,

May

18,

1865 ,

316 .

Canadian

News ,

May

25,

1865 ,

326 .

4. "The "Joseph Hall" Agricultural and Steam Engine

Works, Oshawa, C. W.," Manufactures for Upper Canada,
V (Dec., 1865), 312. [Hereinafter referred to as
"Hall Engine Works"].

5. Canadian News , Jan. 4, 1866, p. 1.

Canadian

News ,

Aug.

10,

1865 ,

P-

•

Canadian

News ,

Nov .

16,

1865 ,

P-

314.

Canadian

News ,

Feb.

1867 ,

P-

132.

Canadian

News ,

Oct .

1 — 1

1864 ,

P-

229 .

284

of Beckett and Co. while those from Dundas were the

work of Gartshore , a very active and seeming first class

machinist, founder and engine builder verv much deserving

considerable study. Montreal seems to have had several

’'engine-makers1' whose "machinery was occasionally met

with" in the oil regions. The machinery of "E. Gilbert,

Canada Engine Works , Montreal" had attracted Alexander

Somerville's notice and was "spoken of in terms of praise"

by men in the oil fields. Unfortunately, it is not known
how many engines these men produced although it seems to
be no small number. In 1864 Waterous and Co. were re¬
ported to "have manufactured steam-engines , within a few

years amounting in value to over $400,000.00." The
supplier and manufacturer from Oshawa - The Joseph Hall
Agricultural and Steam Engine Works - also appears to
have been involved in no mean operation as along with
other orders they we re engaged in "manufacturing not
less than ten portable steam engines , of from fifteen to

1. Canadian News , May 25, 1865, p. 326.

Canadian

News ,

May 18,

1865, p. 316.

Canadian

News ,

May 2 5 ,

1865, p. 326.

Canadian

News ,

April 16

, 1863, p. 249.

Canadian

News ,

Feb. 28,

1867, p. 132.

Canadian

News ,

Oct. 13,

1864, p. 229.

285

twenty horse power each, destined for the oil regions."

Steam engine producers were benefiting by the oil boom.

By August of 1865 engines were arriving at Bothwell at

the rate of three, four or five per week. Less than half

a year later it was stated:

No less than 125 steam engines have been de¬
livered by the Great Western Railway at the
village of Bothwell for the purpose of sinking
wells. This represents a sum of probably
$200,000, expended among Canadian mechanics in
a single branch of labour connected with the wells
of one district. We do not know how many engines
have been sent into Enniskillen, since they have
gone in by various routes , but we fancy we are
safe in saying that the machinery of all the oil
districts of Canada must be of the value of
$500,000. 3

Many of the engines used for sinking wells would
also have been used for pumping. Little is said about
the origin of the pumps. The simple suction pumps used
in some surface wells , some of which were hand pumps , were
probably of local manufacture but it is not known for sure.
To produce the more complex force pumps needed for wells
much over thirty feet deep requires nothing that a steam
engine manufacturer could not make and yet curiously there

1. "Hall Engine Works," 312.

2. Canadian News , Aug. 24, 1865, p. 120.

3. Canadian News , Jan. 4, 1866, p. 6.

286

is no evidence that they branched out into this line;

perhaps it was riskier than making steam engines for

the oil men -- the engines could be used for many

other purposes if the demand by the oil men dropped

but pumps would not sell as readily. In the 1864-65

County of Lambton Gazetteer Clark Curtis of Sarnia is

listed as a turner and pump maker but one man could
not meet the needs of the industry. In the spring of
1865 it was noted that "the pumps are verv liable to
break down" and that "Lick’s well, which was pumping
at the rate of 50 barrels per day, has been at a stand¬
still for three days for want of a valve, which cannot

be procured nearer than Buffalo." There were some
attempts at producing sophisticated equipment locally
but these ventures were not successful. Mr. Lick's
wait for his valve underscores and important point: the
oil regions depended heavily upon outside sources for
vital equipment, the reliability of which was important
but not always present.

Breakdowns were frequent and could be costly as

1. Lambton Gazetteer: 1864-65, p. 86. Because he was
called a "turner and pump maker" we might there¬
fore suspect that his pumps were of wood and not
suitable for deep oil wells.

2. Canadian News, May 18, 1865, p. 316.

287

well as annoying. There is no scarcity of examples of

breakdowns and subsequent loss of time and money. Mr.

Lick was 'losing’ fifty barrels of oil per day for want

of a valve. But at least Lick had a pump; others were

waiting for a pump so that later they could wait for it

to be repaired. Sometimes people did nothing because

they were waiting for engines and sometimes they waited

for repairs -- ten days seems to be a long time to be

held up by a broken engine shaft. To helplessly watch

oil run to waste while waiting for pipe to come from

Buffalo must have been a particularly agonizing
4

experience .

Much of the equipment was unreliable but the oil

men were not without fault and were often criticized for

their gross negligence of equipment. The result of this
human failure was more frequent mechanical failure than
was necessary and the search for a mechanical rather than

1. Canadian News, Oct. 26, 1865, p. 262.

2. Globe , April 12, 1861.

3. Canadian News, Aug. 24, 1865, p. 123.

4. Smith , S27-6, letter of Jas. B. Bennett, Oil
Springs , Aug. 10, 1862.

Canadian News , Oct. 26, 1865, p. 262.

288

a mechanical and humane solution. Greater respect for
the machinery would. have helped to relieve some of their
problems .

But basically what was needed was a good local
source of parts and repairs , the latter being particu¬
larly important because with the great variety of equip¬
ment and methods in the early 1860s it was far too much
to expect to have parts depots that would supply all that
was needed. To meet the demand for parts and repairs,
foundries and blacksmiths shops we re needed and were
provided .

As early as 1856 Wyoming had a blacksmith shop as

well as a steam sawmill, steam gristmill and a brickyard,

all of which were probably on a very modest scale. The

new status of Enniskillen and Wyoming is reflected in

the announcement (June 1861) that a Mr. Richardson of

Ingersoll was constructing a foundrv in Wvoming which was

2 3

to employ twenty-five or thirty hands. When finished

it was described as a foundry and machine shop. The
following year Oil Springs had reason to be proud of its

1. Free Press , Sept. 10 , 1856 .

2. Canadian News, June 19, 1861, p. 199.

Globe, Mar. 12, 1862.

3. • The Globe , . Aug . 30 , 1861 , mentions a "fine foundrv

just into operation” in Wyoming, it is probably
Richardson T s .

4. The Canadian News , Oct. 31, 1861, p. 185, speaks of
the foundry as ow'ned by Richardson of Ingersoll.

289

facilities as it could boast of "3 blacksmiths, 1

foundry almost completed, 1 tinsmith” and a number of

others such that they had "all the trades.” Undoubtedly

there were more blacksmiths in the area than three. The

Lambton Gazetteer: 1864-1865, credits Oil Springs with
2 3 4

five, Sarnia nine, and Wyoming two blacksmiths.

After the unfortunate ecnomic stagnation of 186 3-

64 oil was again all the rage, with Bothwell the centre

of excitement if not of oil. With the fever came the

usual break-downs , delays and frustration as well as the

pleading wish-statement that:

There is a fine chance both at Bothwell and
Oil Springs for a practical mechanic, with a
little capital, to set up in business, holding
himself in readiness to do repairs and to supply
the parts belonging to the machinery used, which,
as many of them are all of one pattern, would be
easily done.

gut that was not all as the article ended with a simple

but important sentence: ”Mr. Gartshore, of Dundas , is

about to open a branch of his works at Bothwell, having

purchased land for the necessary buildings.” Gartshore Ts

1. Leader , Mar. 18, 1862.

2. Lambton Gazetteer, pp . 100, 106, 109.

Lambton

Gazetteer ,

pp .

84, 89, 90, 92

4 •

Lambton

Gazetteer ,

120.

5. Canadian News , May 18, 1865, p. 316.

290

word was. good and a "foundry and machine shop" was

set up. Gartshore ’ s shop was "adjoining the black-

smithing and waggon shop of Mr. Luke", a shop which

along with others in "Bothwell ... Chatam, London,

Brantford, Dundas , Hamilton, Oshawa, and other places

throughout the province" helped to meet the needs of

the oil industry in the Bothwell region. Bothwell was

not the only centre of activity. Oil Springs was

favoured with a branch of E. E. Gilbert’s Montreal
3

machine shop. Petrolia, soon to surpas Oil Springs, was

the site of a "large machine shop and blacksmith shop"

with "4 bellows." The oil regions of Canada West still
had many setbacks and problems to face but the absence
of foundries , machine and blacksmiths shops was not to
be among them. The difficulty in obtaining and main¬
taining parts and equipment was lessened not only by
the establishment of foundries , machine and blacksmiths

1. Canadian News , Sept. 7, 1865, p. 156.

2. The Canadian News , Sept. 7 , 1865 , p. 156 mentions
that "Mr. Gleghorn, well known in this countrv, is
to have charge" of Gartshore fs shop.

3. Canadian News , Jan. 18, 1866, p. 39.

4. Free Press , Feb. 21, 1866.

5. Canadian News , Mar. 22, 1866, p. 187.

291

shops but also by increasing standardization.

By the mid 1860s the oil fields were fortunate

enough to have the shops of men such as Gilbert and

Gartshore and were also witnessing a .greater conformity

and standardization in methods and equipment. In the

same year that Gartshore opened his shop in Bothwell , ' the

Bothwell Reporter , after reviewing the reasons for the

great delays experienced in well-sinking and why, once

sunk, many had a rather short life, was

most gratified to learn that a company is in
course of organization which will meet all the
difficulties we have mentioned. A uniform size
of well will be decided upon, and suitable tools,
piping, castings, and all other materials connected
with well-sinking will be kept constantly in store,
so that anything required may be duplicated at an
hours notice. 1

Although oil practice standardization was far from com¬
plete it was enough that entrepreneurs such as John H. Fair-
bank could advertise "every variety of oil fittings,

•heavy and shelf hardware" as well as "groceries and

provisions, wines and liquors." Merchants could make
their contributions to relieving the logistical and
standardization problems without a major capital investment.
Other contributions required large amounts of capital.

1. Canadian News , Oct. 26 , 1865 , p. 262 .

2. Quoted in Victor Lauriston, "McGarvey of Petrolia
Became World Figure in Oil," Smith , S29-1.- In the
Observer , June 8, 1866, J. Parker and Co., an Oil
Springs firm, advertised tin and well tubing.

292

In the oil fields the large operators did all
that they could to deal with the problems of logistics
and standardization. Those who could afford to strove
for and achieved vertical integration of their operation
as a means of ensuring uniformity and minimizing depen¬
dence upon others. Vertical integration of the oil
industry was a means of bringing about technological
integration. In the d.1 fields this approach to the
problem of obtaining machinery, parts, and materials
occurred while many of the pioneers , "working men in
the possession of a few hundred dollars” with "primi¬
tive and cheap machinery", were being ousted; the

"territory" was "rapidly being absorbed by large capi-

' 1

talists" and few of the original proprietors remained.

One example of large scale and comprehensive organi-

' zation was the Wyoming Rock Oil Company, capitalized at
2

$1,000,000. Wyoming Rock Oil enjoyed the advantages
that money could buy.

Owing to their extensive plant they are enabled
to work at a much less cost than they would if
their operations were carried on on a more
limited scale. The tools which do for making one
well, do also for others. Thev make their own
barrels , their own tanks , have their own blacksmiths

1. Canadian News , May 4, 1865, p. 279.

2. Canadian News , May 4, 1865, p. 279.

■

293

and carpenters, and, except when they have to
purchase their steam engines elsewhere, are
self-dependent . 1

They also had their own distillery with a weekly capa¬
city of seventy-five barrels but this was far below

the productive capacity of their wells. In the same

category with respect to technical sophistication and

self-sufficiency was the Canada Rock Oil Co. , financed

by Mr. David Torrance of Montreal.

The large companies were influential but there were

still many small operators owning the basic equipment and

owning or leasing well sites. These men patronised the

private blacksmiths or foundries for jars, drills, bits,

castings of various kinds and other equipment which would

be made and maintained locally. Depending upon the

style of drilling and pumping used they would depend

upon the previously mentioned Fairbank or " J . Parker and
4

Co." for ’imported’ pipe, tin and well tubing, some of
which, if of the ’scotch' variety might be made locally.
Their lubricants would probably be of their own or local
manufacture and their fuel was local wood, natural gas,

1. Canadian News , May 4, 1865, p. 280.

2. Canadian News , May 4, 1865, p. 280.

3. Canadian News , June 14, 1866, p. 375.

4. Observer , June 8, 1866.

294

oil, or oil refuse. Wood was cut locally, and although

at one time burned because it was cheaper than oil, was

"rapidly disappearing" as big companies cut their way

through the forests to meet their fuel needs. "One firm'

alone during the winter — the Wyoming Rock Oil Company --

cut 3,500 cords of wood and are still at work." Wood was
much more than a fuel.

Wood was also the primary structural material for

everything from roads to oil tanks, derricks, and wagons.

Wyoming had a steam sawmill by 1856 but it burned in 1860,

a not unusual occurrence for sawmills. The need for

lumber was met by the lumberyard of a Mr. Oliver, formerly
3

of Ingersoll, and the itinerant sawmill of Mr. Elliott;
the latter played an important role in linking Oil Springs
and Wyoming with a plank road. Elliott’s Mill, known
locally as "Mount Elliott, although ... situated in a
black ash and elm swamp", could get the job done by cutting

1. Canadian News, May 4, 1865, p. 279.

2. The importance of wagons should not be underestimated
in an area whose immediate environs lacked rail
connections until late 1866 and never had water
connections. As early as 1861 the Free Press , June
25, 1861, noted that Wyoming had wagon makers and

it is likely that many wagons were locally made
and repaired.

3. Free Press, June 25, 1861.

295

at the rate of "one thousand feet per hour." Elliott

seems to have been a rather unsavoury character or

perhaps just a shrewd businessman trving to stav alive

in dire straits. He was not exceptionally popular but

did make a good impression on the saddlebag Methodist

preacher Robert Burns .

The chief proprietor here is Col. Elliott,
formerly Mayor of Cornwall, whom I had known
of old, and who came to both of our meetings.

He is a religious man, and although a Congre-
gationalist, is very friendly to us. He is the
proprietor of the plank road between here and
Wyoming, (15 miles) and makes the staves for the
oil barrels, many of which passed us on the road
on Friday. 2

In turning to the production of staves Elliott was

showing good business sense. From 1860 to early 1863

barrel production was below the demand. It was reported

in May 1862 that "one large steam barrel factory will

-shortly be commenced” in Oil Springs with another ”in

contemplation” giving a total manufacturing capacity of

"over 7,500 barrels per day." The report is overly
optimistic. Even if the reporter meant per week instead
of per day he was still high and should have said per

1. Canadian News , Oct. 31, 1865, p. 185. The mill at
Bothwell was reported by the Canadian News , Mav 11,
1865, p. 295, as being able to cut 20,000 feet per

day but it is not known how long the dav is. Elliott’s
mill often was worked 24 hours per dav.

2. Undated letter in Smith collection, Smith , S27-43.

3 . Canadian News , May 22, 1862, p. 330.

296

fortnight ■ thereby leaving himself open only to a

charge of slight exaggeration. However, wood was not the

only building material; bricks could be and were pro-

duced locally. But putting up buildings was only part
of the job; they had to be used and for refineries this
meant supplying them with sulphuric acid.

Sulphuric acid was not being produced in Canada at
all when the oil boom started although the raw materials
were present. In a lecture entitled "Canada as a Field
For Chemical Manufactures" Professor Bell of Queen’s
University pointed out that no chemical manufacture
could be carried on more profitably in Canada than that
of the production of sulphuric acid, an acid which

Canadians had imported nearly $80,000.00 worth in 1863.
The following year Alexander Somerville noted that the
"sulphuric acid used in deodorising the oil is brought
a long distance at much cost, some from New York, some
from Liverpool." He urged that it be produced locally .

1. The evidence for total production is not clear but
at the most and assuming no duplication of reports
one might get a figure as high as 2,800 barrels per
six day week. See Leader , Feb. 12, 1862, Spectator ,
Mar. 10, 1862, Observer, Mar. 20, 1862, and Globe,
July 24, 1862.

2. Free Press, Sept. 10, 1856, Leader , Mar. 18, 1862,
and Observer, Oct. 13, 1862.

3. "Canada as a Field for Chemical Manufactures,” Manu¬
factures for Upper Canada, V (June, 1865), 157-158.
The production of aniline dyes was encouraged in the
same lecture.

297

because "'its crude elements abound at Oil Springs , as

at all places where petroleum exists" and "in refining

oil the expedients of genius and instincts of economy

will soon appropriate the local acids , to the exlusion

of the more costly imported articles now in use." The
proposals fell on deaf ears for a short time but there
were others who felt that if the acid could be manu¬
factured in Canada it should be. It seemed rather absurd

that iron pyrites should be sent from Brockville to New

York to be made into acid to be sold in Canada. and an

application was made for a charter to incorporate the

Dominion of Canada Chemical Works Company to manufacture

sulphuric acid at Brockville, capital $50,000.00. But

this was not the first positive response to the need for

sulphuric acid; on "21st Mav , 1867" the "first sulphuric

acid plant in Canada was opened in London C.W." It
should have come as no surprise; there was a clear need

1. Canadian News , June 14, 1866, p. 375.

2. Canadian News , June 6, 1867, p. 361.

3. Canadian News , June 20, 1867, p. 380. I have been

unable to determine how successful this venture was.

4. Charles J. S. Warrington and Robert V. V. Nicholls,

A History of Chemistry in Canada (Toronto: Sir Isaac
Pitman and Sons, 1949), p. 38. [Hereinafter re¬
ferred to as Warrington, Chemistry] . Warrington,
Chemistry does not mention the Brockville venture.

298

and in March it had been announced that "Messrs. Wm.
McMillan, of Bothwell, and George Macbeth, Wm. Bowman,
and John Macbeth, of London" were applying for a charter
for a company "to be called the Canada Chemical Manufac¬
turing Company" . The company was to engage in the
"manufacturing of chemicals and dye stuffs" and had a

nominal capital of $20,000 with $15,000 already subscribed.

Four months later, with the plant not yet completely

finished, some 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of s'ulphuric acid

were being produced daily with a daily output of 8,000

to 9,000 pounds per day expected by July. The gentlemen

composing the company were identified as "Messrs. William

McMillan, George McBett, late M.P.P., Hon. E. Leonard,

M.L.C., who has been recently elevated to a life senator;

W. Bowman, and Z. Smallman." The same article claimed

that the customs returns showed that Canada West was

using "upwards of $60,000" worth of sulphuric acid per

year, all from the United States, and that the Canada

Chemical Manufacturing Company would be able to supply

all of the province’s needs and still have a surplus

to act as the starting point for the manufacture of

other chemicals .

Canadian

News ,

Mar .

21,

1867 ,

P-

177.

Canadian

News ,

July

18,

1867 ,

P-

39.

. i

Warrington and Nicholls do not identify the Canada
Chemical Manufacturing Company by name but are clearly
talking about the same company in their account. They give
the impression that there were fewer people involved and fail
to mention those who encouraged the manufacture of sulphuric
acid or others who proposed to enter the business of manu¬
facturing sulphuric acid. Regarding the "first" sulphuric
"acid plant in Canada" Warrington and Nicholls write that

the promoters of this venture were Williams Bowman and
T. H. Smallman who were, respectively, ticket agent and
superintendent of the London and Port Stanley Railway.

It was over this line that carboys of acid were trans¬
ported in 1866 after having been brought across Lake Erie
by sailing vessel from Cleveland, their destination being
the oil refineries of London and Petrolia . . . The main
outlets for the refined product were in heating and
lighting, and Bowman and Smallman had noted that it was
just in the autumn, when the refineries were at their
busiest preparing for the winter's needs of "stove and
lamp oil", that fate was unkind, and the sulphuric acid
cargoes were often delayed or missing entirely. This
apparent coincidence was often due to the fact that acid
had to be carried as deck cargo, and when an autumnal gale
arose, the crew, fearing the carboys would break, jetti¬
soned them. The resulting uncertainty of delivery
suggested to Bowman and Smallman the need for a local
source of acid.l

1. Warrington, Chemistry , p. 38. As far as I am able to
determine, petroleum, contrary to Warrington, was used
very infrequently for heating. Warrington, as with so
much that he claims , never makes it clear where he is
getting his information. On page 490 in his list of
references for Chapter 2, Scott, B. J. , "The Economic 8
History of London, Canada", (M.A. History Thesis, University
of Western Ontario, 1930) is listed as a source. To begin
with the title is listed incompletely; it should read The
Economic and Industrial History of the City of London,

' Canada, From the Building of the First Railway, 1861T7 to.

the Present, 1930. I believe that this unpublished thesis
is the source for much of his information. The Scott
thesis which I have examined is virtually devoid of anv
documentation, a most incredible piece of literature.

300

With .the completion of sulphuric acid production
facilities in Canada all or almost all of the essential
materials for a Canadian oil industry were being pro¬
duced in Canada. The pride in this accomplishment is
evident throughout articles such as Alexander Somerville’s
description of Waterman’s new refinery in London. It is
most evident in his summation of the "erection of these
works .

From the day when the first spadeful of earth
was turned to the day when stills, engine, pump,
and all accessories were in full operation, only
seven weeks elapsed. The pump was made at
Brooklyn, in the States; all the other work--s tills ,
tanks, and- construction, emanated from little
London city, except the engine--that was made by
Beckett and Sons, of Hamilton. 1

It was a far cry from the chaos, confusion, and jerry-

built work of a few years earlier. Occasionally refiners

would come from outside bringing their equipment with
• 2

them but it was not a necessity.

The men who had successfully established an oil
industry in Canada during the 1860s had faced and solved
a great many problems. In the area immediately surrounding
the oil fields there were no factories or major workshops

1. Canadian News , Feb. 28 , 186 7 , p. 132.

See for example, Observer , July 14, 1871, a reference
to the Dominion of Canada Oil Refining Company.

301

in 1860 and transportation facilities were notoriously
deficient. But if the industry were to survive as a
viable economic and technological entity the oil men
had to have constant and reliable sources of parts,
materials, and equipment. .Canadian entrepreneurs responded
to the challenge. Repair shops and small manufactures
were established in the oil fields. The growth of
standardization meant that fewer varieties of parts were
needed; at the same time, vertical integration of com¬
panies helped to minimize the number of weak and unrelia¬
ble links in the processing and supply chains. Outside
of the oil fields manufacturers of chemicals and heavy
equipment, such as steam engines and boilers, were pro¬
ducing for the oil industry. The establishment of the
sulphuric acid industry in Canada was a direct result
of the oil boom as was the increase in steam engine pro¬
duction. Both required sophisticated equipment and skilled
personnel. By the end of the decade it was clear that
Canada, a new nation, possessed the requisite engineering
skill and manufacturing capacity to develop, support and
utilize the products of a major and highly specialized
mining industry. The products and the skills associated
with the petroleum industry were felt and would continue to
be felt beyond the immediate confines of that one
particular industry.

I •

302

CONCLUSIONS

In a work that purports to be essentially des¬
criptive and narrative it would be unwise and a misre- •
presentation to conclude with an interpretive essay. How¬
ever, this is not to say that there is not a place for
some rather general observations on the basic findings of
the thesis.

During the period under consideration and despite
great difficulty a new industry had been established on a
foundation that was not entirely unsound. By the end of
the 1860s there was little doubt that petroleum was a
valuable commercial product. , Petroleum was only beginning
to be appreciated and subsequent decades and a new century
were to reveal many more uses for petroleum; many of these
had been thought of and to some extent sought after in the
1860s when their realization was still in the future. Al¬
though the pace of technological change is accelerating
there are retarding forces associated with any change and
the petroleum industry was no exception. Technological,
financial, and psychological barriers chained petroleum
to the illuminating industry. Petroleum made forays into
various areas of utilization and established itself in
minor ways as fuel, medicine, and lubricant but in terms

303

of immediate returns and value these endeavours were
minor and peripheral. However, the lack of success in
some areas should not overshadow the importance of
petroleum in the 1860s or the great technical accomplish¬
ments that were the foundation of the industrv.

The oil industry is a mining industry and future
studies should be made comparing its growth with that
of other more conventional mining industries. It is only
recently that a level of scientific and technological
sophistication has been reached that allows mineral finds
to be made independent of surface indications . The early
oilmen were attracted by surface shows which did not
supply oil in commercial quantities. One of the earliest
problems was simply that of getting oil out of the ground.
After some attempts at roasting the oil soaked earth of
the Gum Beds it was decided that the best way of getting
oil was as a liquid from wells. The oilmen were simply
trying to get a valuable liquid to the surface of the
earth and wells were the best way to do this. Various,
types of wells , each with its own special characteristics
and mode of construction, were tried until the most
suitable was found.

The earliest wells were little more than big holes
dug into the ground. These surface wells were dug with

304

pick and shovel and curbed with the wood available:
logs, square timber or planks. The oil was expected
to seep in through the bottom of the well and would
be stored there until pumped out. Surface wells could
not be made to penetrate bedrock which was where most
of the oil was. The result was that wells were drilled
with percussion drills. Since part of the well was
drilled and serving purely as a conductor it made sense
to drill all of the well. Augers went to bedrock and
percussion drills beyond. The combination of auger and
percussion drill was valued by the oilmen, men whose sole
purpose was to get a valuable liquid out of the earth,
simply because it was the fastest way of sinking wells.

In the quest for the best combination of low costs
and high yield per well various sources of power were
used to sink and pump oil wells. The simplest way was
to have labourers kick or treadle them down, a sensible
method when men were available and other power sources
and equipment were not only scarce but also expensive.

As the major means of sinking and pumping wells kicking
was replaced by more complicated but faster and less
burdensome horsepower rigs and- steam engines.

The introduction and regular use of steam engines

305

is a symbol of the increased technological sophisti¬
cation of the oil industry in Lambton county and of
the general response of Canada to the oil industry. A
great variety of machinery and supplies were needed and
by the end of the 1860s they could be produced in Canada
and maintained, even if not produced in Lambton county.

The urgent need for innovative thinking which
characterizes a new and/or rapidly changing technology is
seen in an examination of one of the most critical pro¬
blems faced by the oil industry in the 1860s: the storage
of petroleum. The barrels first used were not suitable
because, no matter how well made, the oil would permeate
the wood and leak out. Barrels were produced which were
coated with and impregnated by materials which were not
oil soluble. Impregnated barrels did not satisfy all
storage needs because they were small, expensive, and
could not be economically produced to meet the wildly
fluctuating demands of the oil industry. Underground
tanks and above ground iron tanks gave greater storage
capacity. By the late 1860s there were a number of
means available for storing oil, either while stationary
or being moved, and these met the needs of the industry
at the time.

306

Special problems arose not only because petroleum
was a liquid but also because it was a very malodorous
liquid. Most crude petroleum is rather nauseating and
vile smelling. Lambton county petroleum had a particu¬
larly bad odour and was therefore even more in need of
deodorization than say Pennsylvania petroleum. Crude
petroleum needs treating because it is a mixture of
many compounds which when separated into groups are
valuable but until then are of very limited use and
value. The refining of petroleum to produce a market¬
able illuminant was the major problem plaguing the oil
industry throughout the 1860s. The chemical knowledge
of the day would not allow the offensive chemical com¬
pounds to be identified but methods of removal were
empirically developed, primarily outside of Canada, until
the work of Frasch in the 1870s. It was not until the
pate 1860s that Canadian refined illuminants came up
to international standards because prior to that the
Canadian refiners had not given the crude the time and
care, and therefore the money, that it needed. Whether
or not this lack of care was characteristic of other
Canadian industries at the time is a point that should
be pursued.

307

For much of the decade 1860-70 it was possible
to pass off inferior products on a public which was
just learning to live with and assess petroleum. For
much of that same decade there was some doubt as to
whether the highly publicized oil industry was just
another bubble, just another Yankee swindle, or whether
it was a new part of the industrial world. By the end
of the decade it was clear that although there had been
a number of frauds in the industry the idea of a
petroleum industry was a legitimate one. By 1870 a new
and struggling but viable industry had been created in-
Canada. However, it was more than an industry; it was
an important formative influence in the development of
a young country .

308

Figure I
DEEP WELL PUMP

V^LVfc P\

V uv E

r*AS

CKa\5 Ln! •

Based on Arthur M. Greene, Jr., Pumping Machinery: A
Treatise on the History, Design, Construction and uperation
of Various Forms of~ Pumps (2nd ed.; New York: John Wiley 8

gonS ? 1919) , pi 2 79. Courtesy Metropolitan Toronto Library
Board .

309

PLATE I.

Lick Well, Albert Farm, Bothwell, circa 1866.
Courtesy Ontario Department of Mines.

►

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V < ■

;

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9981 Poaxo <110^1(4.09 <iT0M IT0 a0dd0j

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218

the OIL WELLS OF MR. JOHN D NOBLE, AT PETROLI

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315

APPENDIX A

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316

APPENDIX B

Report of Chemical Examination on a Sample of Asphalt
Sent Forward to Me by Mr. Tripp

Signed: Thos . D. Antisell, M.D.

This asphalt is a semi-solid substance, soft, and
plastic in the fingers, blackish color in the interior,
fracture tenacious and stringy without lustre . . . adheres
to paper.

The outer portion of the mass is mixed with undecom-
posed woody fibre, and rootlets. From these the interior
is quite free , and it was on this matter that experiments
we re made .

The specific gravity of the sample is 1.014. It does
not yield anything to cold water, but by boiling water a
minute portion of volatile liquid is diffused through the
water .

On examination in closed and open crucibles it yielded
in 100 parts.--

Volatile matter

80.06

Coke

13.57

Ash

6.37

100.00

On distillation at temperatures of boiling water,- it

317

yielded a moderate amount of liquid resembling Benzoles.
The application of a higher heat drove off additional
volatile liquids, and a considerable quantity of
paraffine. From the experiments I made, I . am inclined
to believe that the crude material, if properly worked,
would yield nearly 15 per cent of naphtha-liquid. This
mineral is partly soluble in alcohol, a yellow resin
being dissolved out by that fluid. It is completely
soluble in naphtha, ether, and oil of turpentine.

The earthy matters are the only residue in the three
latter liquids. It melts at 212°, swelling up and
softening from 180° onwards -- softened in water, it gives
off copious bubbles of air.

I look on this as a valuable variety of bitumen and

applicable to all purposes for which this substance is
now in demand. Its softness and fusibility renders it
valuable in the manufacture of Japan and other varnishes.
It is peculiarly fitted for obtaining from it, by dis¬
tillation, the Naphtha-liquid, (Benzole) which are now
so extensively used as a solvent for Gutta-Percha, and
other gums and resins. For this branch of manufacture,
this variety of bitumen appears more adapted than the
solid and lustrous asphalt.

For the fabrication of mastics and cements, it is

gfl

■

318

also well adapted, being capable of intimate mixture
with the other materials at a low temperature, it makes
a good hydraulic cement.

This bitumen is admirably adapted for illuminating;
purposes in either of two ways. First, by the use of
benzole liquids obtained from it by distillation, these
might be used when diluted with alcohol or other menstrums ,
as the burning fluid in this is used or second, as
offering an illuminating gas. By reference to the
analysis it appears that 80 per cent is capable of being
converted into combustible gases. These gases would be
highly charged with carbon, would yield a brilliant
light, and require less purification than the gases
derived from coal. In equal weight, this bitumen would'
yield a greater amount of illuminating gases than the
finest variety of bituminous coal.

For the manufacture of gases, this bitumen requires
a peculiar variety of furnaces and retorts.

This bitumen is adapted for use in all the purposes
in which the mineral may be used, but the manufacture
of volatile liquids and of illuminating gases appears
to be its most appropriate uses.

(signed) Thomas Antisell, M.D.

Consulting and Analvtical Chemist
No. 63 Franklin St. , New York

•

319

The above is as it appears in Canadian Oil Leaders ,
an unpublished MSS. of the late Col. R. _B. Harkness of
Port Rowan, Ontario. Surviving portions of the manu¬
script are in the possession of Mr. W. D. Brittain, •
Chief Inspector, Petroleum Resources, Department of Mines
and Northern Affairs (Ontario) .

320

APPENDIX C

Gas Company's Office
Hamilton, February 7th, 1855.

Chas . Tripp, Esq.,

Dear Sir:

At your request I beg to send you the result of your
experiment with the asphalt you sent us .

The quantity weighed before using was 1,450 pounds.

This was put into 16 retorts , and sealed up in the usual wav --
in three hours it had given off 4,600 cubic feet of gas, which
I put into an empty holder, and used it in the early part of
the night. It burns with a very soft pure light, without smell.
I should say that so far as illuminating power goes , it is 10
to 15 per cent over the ordinary coal gas .

The amount of residual deposited I have no means of as¬
certaining, as it became mixed with the tar and ammonia resi¬
due in the retorts, I believe the specimen I used was of in¬
ferior quality on account of being taken off the surface and
containing a considerable quantity of earthy and vegetable
matter.

I am, Sir,

Yours most respectfully,

(signed) Thos . Mcllwraith,

Manager, Gas Company

The source of the above is the same as for Appendix B. Both
were copied as given in the MSS. without correction.

321

APPENDIX D

Testifying before a Royal Commission Martin Woodward,

a Petrolia well owner, described the pumping of wells-.

The average daily supply from a well is five to
ten barrels of water and oil mixed, but of oil they
average something less than a barrel a dav . I have
known as many as ninety wells to be pumped bv the
one engine. In most cases they use a bricked-in
boiler. The drive wheel is connected with a wheel
which has a pitman on each side that works a hori¬
zontal wheel backwards and forwards. The jerker rods
are attached on opposite sides of the wheel and connect
with the pump over the hole. Iron rods are used in the
pump, their weight being sufficient to make it -drop.

As far as I know the jerker was first used here; I
never heard of it anywhere else before. It was used
here before it was used in the States. I cannot tell
you the number of wells that are being worked in this
territory, but I think there are about 2,500.1

Of the same system Robert Bell wrote that in

the early days of the industry a separate engine
was used to pump each well, but now, by an ingenious
contrivance of rods and cranks, called "jerkers," 20
to 40, and even 50 wells, are pumped by one engine,
and this of much smaller power than would be supposed
necessary. In one case, Mr. Englehart worked no fewer
than 70 wells with a single engine by this means. The
rods, which are small, are made of hard wood, spliced
together with iron, and, in order to diminish friction,
they are. hung from a horizontal wooden rail about four
feet from the ground, by means of very light iron
suspenders , which swing backward and forward with each
stroke of the engine.. The direction of the force is
changed, whenever required, by means of horizontal

1. Report of the Royal Commission on the Mineral Resources
of~0ntario and Measures for Their Development (Toronto :

Warwick 5 Sonsj 1890 ) , p . 15 7 . [Hereinafter referred
to as Commission on' Minerals of Ontario . ]

322

cranks. With such economy in the cost of
pumping, it has become possible to work pro¬
fitably wells which yield only small quantities
of oil. Indeed, in 1886, the average production
per well per day in the Petrolia region was only
twenty-three imperial gallons , or not much more
than half-a-barrel . The ten larges wells in the
district furnished an average of twenty barrels-
each, of thirty-five imperial gallons, per dav . 1

The horizontal cranks that Bell refers to could possibly

be bell cranks although I would expect to find field

wheels instead. Field wheels are horizontal wheels from

which jerker rods radiate in pairs parallel to each other.

J. H. Fairbank claimed that he originated the svstem

of multiple pumping but I have shown in the body of the

thesis that this is not so. The important thing to note

is that he did not claim the introduction of the field

wheel. Local tradition in the oil fields insists that

he did and many that I have talked to say that he claimed

such in his testimony before the Roval Commission.

Fairbank made no such claim.

The system of working a number of wells from
the one engine, the jerker system, came in as
the production fell off. When we had large wells
we would abandon a well that produced only five
or six barrels a day; now the man who gets a well
of that kind is considered to strike it rich. The
jerker system was adopted about twentv-five years
ago. I remember the time the first jerker was put
into operation. It was .not patented, and I do not

Robert Bell, "The Petroleum Field of Ontario,"
Proceedings and . Transactions of the Royal Society

of Canada, V (1887), 111.

323

know that it could be. I had a well too hard
to work by man power; I hadn't an engine, but
there was engine power within reach and I applied
the present jerker system. I think that was in
1863. The majority of wells were then worked by
man power with a spring pole. The jerker is uni¬
versal now, and it would be impossible to work upon
the old system. It was first used with a horizontal
walking beam, that was afterwatds improved bv using
the wheel, with which there is a great deal less
friction. I think Hr. Revnolds was the first who
introduced the wheel; he is still here. With one
engine now they work from half a dozen to eighty
or ninety wells , with one boiler but often two
engines . 1

Mr. Reynolds was not called upon to testify. I do not

know the date at which the field wheel was introduced.

Commission on Minerals of Ontario, p. 159.

324

bibliographic ESSAY

Manuscript, Unpublished and Private Collections

Two private collections and their owners ,

George Smith and Ed Phelps , provided invaluable material
and assistance.

The Smith Collection is owned by George Smith an
antique and antiquarian book dealer in Sarnia and Brights
Grove, Ontario. Part of the Smith Collection is composed
of books and pamphlets dealing with Ontario history in
general and Lambton county in particular. Much of the
Lambton county material is composed of newspaper clippings
collected by George Smith and his father the late Leslie
Smith. Leslie Smith searched Sarnia newspapers for items
of interest to Lambton county historians. He worked with
originals and microfilms ; items from the former became
part of his clipping files. Notes made from microfilm
were grouped under various subject headings. The clippings
and notes of the late Leslie Smith were made available,
to me by his son George and Xerox copies of much of this
material are in my possession.

The collection of Ed Phelps comprises published
and manuscript material. Much of his material has been
donated to the library of which he is librarian: the

325

Regional History Library at the University of Western
Ontario. The two collections should be dealt with as
a unit; together they contain personal and legal papers,
histories, directories and gazetteers as well as maps'
and photographic material. Host of the personal papers
postdate the period under study but through Mr. Phelps
I was able to obtain a Xerox copy of the Diary of J. H.
Fairbank for the years 1862-64. Entries in the diary-
are not daily' but those present provide considerable
insight into early oil work.

One of the holdings of the library of the University
of Western Ontario is the Barnett Engineering Collection,
normally referred to as the Barnett Bundles . The collection
is composed of several hundred roughly indexed manila
envelopes of clippings from mid to late nineteenth
century technical journals. Each envelope contains items
on a different topic one of which is petroleum. Most
of the material is post 1870 but the collection is the
source of much valuable information on the utilization
of petroleum.

Only one of the collections consulted was ex¬
clusively manuscript, viz. that. of the late Col. Bruce
Harkness, former Oil and Gas Commissioner for the

326

Province of Ontario. Col. Harkness had planned to
write a history of oil and gas in Ontario but the pro¬
ject was not completed before his death. His material
is in the possession of his widow and the Department of
Mines and Northern Affairs for the Province of Ontario.
Thanks to the kindness of Mrs. Harkness and Mr. William
Brittain of the Department of Mines and Northern Affairs
I was given full access to his manuscripts which are now
in my files in Xerox copy. The Harkness material is a
good guide to major developments but interesting as it
is , it is of rather limited value because it is almost
completely undocumented.

Periodical Literature

Periodical literature provided most of the infor¬
mation for this thesis. The paucity of Canadian' non-
agricultural technical journals during the 1860s made
it necessary to rely heavily on newspapers. Newspapers
are an invaluable primary source but studying them is
very time consuming and a complete study of all Ontario
or Canadian newspapers for the 1860s was not possible.

A number of newspapers were examined before picking
several for very detailed study. Paradoxical as it may
• seem the best surviving newspaper for coverage of the

327

oil industry in Canada was not Canadian but British:
the Canadian News . The Canadian News was devoted solely
to news of and pertaining to the British North American
possessions. The Canadian News avoided partisan political
commentary and concentrated on issues of interest to
investors, businessmen and emmigrants. By using this
paper the views of a considerable number of Canadian
newspapers were received because it was largely a
collection of articles and news items taken, with and
without credit, from Canadian newspapers. These borrowed
articles were supplemented by the work of special corres¬
pondents .

The Sarnia Observer was the other newspaper con¬
sulted frequently and in doing this the notes of the
late Leslie Smith were very useful. Other papers were
searched for select periods of intense activity or

excitement when as many views and reports as possible
were needed. The most complete list of Canadian news¬
papers on microfilm and the location of the originals is
the Canadian Newspapers on Microfilm Catalogue ( 151 Sparks
Street, Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, 1959) which
is a looseleaf accumulative publication updated annually.

Although newspapers were the main form of periodi¬
cal literature used various journals were also examined.

328

Only journals found to be useful will be mentioned.

During the 1860s the only Canadian technical journal
which was not primarily agricultural was the Journal
of the Board of Arts and Manufactures for Upper Canada.

It started in January 1861 and ran on a monthly
basis until the last issue in February of 1868. The
journal was produced on a very limited budget and con¬
sisted mainly of articles from the journals and news¬
papers of Britain, Europe and the United States. Consi¬
derable Canadian material was also printed and because
the oil industry was one of the most exciting and pro¬
mising Canadian industries during the life of the J ournal
of the Board of Arts and Manufactures for Upper Canada
it was the sib ject of many articles and news items. The
journal is well-indexed and material from other sources
was acknowledged.

The Canadian Journal of Industry, Science, and
Art was published by the Canadian Institute, now the
Royal Canadian Institute. The main emphasis is not
on technology and engineering but the oil industry was
the subject of some papers in this journal.

The other journals of major use were not of
Canadian origin. No journals were found which made a
sustained effort to follow and/or analyse the oil

329

industry in Canada but most of the engineering journals
mentioned petroleum in Canada irregularly. The journals
studied which fit into this category are The Artizan,
Chemical News , Engineering , Journal of the Royal Society
of Arts , and Transactions of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science. All of these journals are
well-indexed .

Background and other published material

One of the major problems facing historians of
technology and resource utilization is the difficulty .
of finding reputable works to supply relevant background
material. Historians of petroleum are verv fortunate in
this respect because Professor R. J. Forbes has turned
his attention to petroleum in three separate works. Com¬
bined, the three works provide a relatively detailed
study of petroleum from prehistory to the nineteenth
century. The smallest of these three works, R. J. Forbes,
Studies in Ancient Technology, Vol. I (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1964) has the first 124 pages devoted to bitumen and
petroleum in antiquity. R. J. Forbes, Studies in Early
Petroleum History (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1958) and R. J.
Forbes, More Studies in Early Petroleum History (Leiden:

E. J. Brill, 1959) bring his petroleum studies to the

330

late nineteenth century. Forbes' work is very care¬
fully written, well-documented and and covers a wide
range of uses and processes.

The most comprehensive history of the petroleum
industry in the United States is a two volume work
primarily by Professors Williamson and Daum: Harold
F. Williamson and Arnold R. Daum, The American Petroleum
Industry , Vol. I: The Age of Illumination 1859-1899
(Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1959) and.

Harold F. Williamson, Arnold R. Daum, et al . , The
American Petroleum Industry, Vol. II: The Age of Energy
1899-1959 (Evanston: Northwes tern University Press, 1963).
The w ork of Professors Williamson and Daum is likely to
remain the standard and most comprehensive work on the
oil industry in the United States for many years to
come. Williamson and Daum have confined their’ work
exclusively to the United States. Their perspective is
that of the economic historian and although they do
introduce technical matters their treatment of them is
of rather limited depth.

The work of Williamson and Daum combined with that
of Forbes provides an excellent introduction to the main
currents in the history of petroleum. Verv little

331

information pertaining to nineteenth century Canada
is supplied by either Williamson and Daum or Forbes
but one is made aware of problems , developments and
uses in other countries and is in this wav prepared to
study what happened in Canada.

Material has been published dealing with the
development of the petroleum industry in Canada but in
terms of quality and completeness none of it approaches
the work of Forbes or Williamson and Daum. The most
frequently quoted is Victor Ross , Petroleum in Canada
(Toronto: Southam Press, 1917), a pleasant but undocu¬
mented and vague book. Ross set out to tell the storv
of the petroleum industry in Canada in a popular style.

He has neither footnotes nor bibliography and rarely uses
dates with the result that one cannot follow up or 'check
his statements. In some cases it is not always possible
to tell what decade Ross is dealing with. Ross has
given a general outline and little more.

Local histories are often overlooked because
they lack the usual scholarly paraphernalia of footnotes
and 'bibliography and are sometimes notoriously unreliable:
gifts laid at the feet of departed ancestors and founding
fathers who could do no wrong. Three local histories

332

were useful in writing this thesis. Charles Whipp
and Edward Phelps, Petrolia: 1866-1966 (Petrolia,

Ontario: The Petrolia Advertiser-Topic and the Petrolia
Centennial Committee, 1966) is the result of the com¬
bined efforts of a librarian-scholar, Mr. Phelps, and
a newspaper owner-editor, Mr. Whipp. The book was
written primarily for local consumption but should be
read by all interested in Ontario or petroleum history.

There are two modern histories of Lambton county: Jean
Turnbull Elford, A History of Lambton County (Sarnia:

Lambton Historical Society, 1967) and Victor Lauriston,
Lambton* s Hundred Years: 1849-1949 (Sarnia: Haines
Frontier Printing Company, n.d.). Lauriston’s work is
out of print. Until recently the value of this book
to scholars was marred by the lack of an index, but
George Smith has prepared a very complete index. George
Smith , Index to Victor Lauriston *s Lambton *s One Hundred
Years : 1849-1949 (Wyoming, Ontario: Lambton County Library,
1971) .

The best summary of early oil development in Ontario
is Edward Phelps, "Foundations of the Canadian Oil Industry,
1850-1866," Profiles of a Province: Studies in the History
of Ontario (Toronto: Ontario Historical Society, 1967),

pp. 156-164.

333

During the late nineteenth century one of the
leading authorities on petroleum was Sir Boverton Red¬
wood. A familiarity with at least parts of Boverton
Redwood, Petroleum - A Treatise (2 vols . ; London: Griffin,
1896) is essential for anyone interested in the history
of petroleum in the nineteenth century.

The major nineteenth century use of petroleum was
as an illuminant. The search for illuminants and the use
of hydrocarbons immediately prior to the oil boom is
summarised, complete with patent references, in Thomas
Antisell, The Manufacture of Photogenic or Hydro-Carbon
Oils from Coal and Other Bituminous Substances Capable
of Supplying Burning Fluids (New York: D. Appleton and
Co., 1859). A history of the development of lighting in
Canada is Loris Russell, A Heritage of Light: Lamps and
Lighting in the Early Canadian Home (Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 1968). Professor Russell’s work is
carefully written and research and well-documented.

During the 1860s very few serious books were pub¬
lished on the subject of petroleum but there were some.

The best early work on petroleum is A. Norman Tate,
Petroleum and Its Products: An Account of the History,
Origin, Composition, Properties, Uses, and' Commercial
V a lue , 8c., of Petroleum, The Methods Employed in Refining

334

it, and the Properties, Uses, Sc. , of its Products
(London: John W. Dawes, 1863). Tate was an analytical
chemist from Liverpool with a long involvement with
petroleum and other hydrocarbon oils. His work is
largely on English practice but is an excellent source
of information on all that the lengthy title promised
plus a discussion of the opposition to the introduction
of petroleum.

Much of the promotional literature associated
with the petroleum industry in the 1860s was filled 'with
little more than optimistic promises. However, one gave
more; a publication of the Canadian Native Oil Companv?
(Limited) , The Canadian Native Oil: Its Story, Its Uses,
and Its Profits , With Some Account of A Visit to the
Oil Wells (London: Ashby 8 Co., 1862) provided descriptions
of drilling, pumping, and refining as well as much on
the problems plaguing the oil fields.

Various other works provided small amounts of
information, mainly peripheral and/or a repetition of
that to be found in the sources discussed. Duplicate
sources have been listed and discussed in footnotes.

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